The BFG

by Roald Dahl

About the Author

“I is reading it hundreds of times,’ the BFG said. ‘And I is still reading it and teaching new words to myself and how to write them. It is the most scrumdiddlyumptious story.’ Sophie took the book out of his hand. ‘Nicholas Nickleby,’ she read aloud.’By Dahl’s Chickens,’ the BFG said.”

My Review

‘The Giant And The Girl Saving The World’

I couldn’t stop smiling while reading this book. It’s such a sweet funny story. I can’t remember reading ti as a kid but i’m sure i and a copy. I know about The BFG from the film that was made. And I’ve got to say the film didn’t let the book down.

We begin by meeting Sophie, lying awake in her dormitary at the ‘witching hour’ trying to get to sleep.But with the moonbeam peeping through the gap in the curtains, Sophie wasn’t having much luck. With the thought of being punished if caught out of bed, Sophie quickly gets up to try to close the curtains. But it’s then when she spots a something black and tall coming up the street. The tall black figure came nearer and nearer. She watched as he lay down a suitcase and opened it up. He then filled a trumpet with something from inside it. Then pushing the trumpet through the bedroom window opposite he blows into it.

‘The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world to themselves.’

Sophie then hides with fright, only for moments later to be picked up out of her bed by a giant hand! The giant grabs her and whisks her away. That sounds quite scary now reading it as an adult but it leads off to a big adventure and a loving friendship being formed. Once in the cave, The BFG sets Sophie down, She believes he’s going to eat her but explains that he doesn’t, others do, but he only eats Snozzcumbers. Which are vile by the way, but are the only thing growing in the area. What I loved was how he described what people tasted like from each country, and that giants don’t eat people from Greece as they are to greasy and people from Wales are fishy.

“Two rights don’t equal a left.”

While listening to the giant Sophie finds herself correcting the giants speech and saying he’s getting the words all mixed up, and in reply the BFG tells her off because he had to tech himself and he is very proud and he knows what he means he doesn’t know quite how to say it. A mini lesson in judging others perhaps?

The story continues with their growing relationship, and The BFG explains all about the other giants and how gruesome they are and then leads her onto his big secret…..His dream catching. I loved this bit, He explains how dreams work and the whole capturing them with a big net and putting them in a jar as living things.  And he labels every single one up so he can grab one in a hurry when he goes off to do his job. The whole idea of believing in dreams and the idea that they need to be captured was magical.

The story is just full of magic, friendship, heroes from the unlikely of sources. The fact the other giants call The BFG a runt made me think of my Mum’s dog Milo and how he was the runt of the litter but makes up for it in character and the fact is loves everybody and will protect them even if he is only a jack russell. The BFG had been living alone for so long and kept out the of the way of the other giants and it’s heartwarming when you read the bit about him protecting Sophie. Warning her not go outside and then the moment when one of the other giants enters the cave believing there to be a human bean about the place.

“The maid screamed.
The Queen gasped.
Sophie waved.”

When Sophie discovers about the giants snatching and eating children, she tells the BFG that it must be stopped. A plan is formed to get help from the Queen to capture the giants and to put an end to it. With Sophie’s brains sorry ideas and the size, speed and knowledge of the giant, they create a dream to give to the Queen to make her believe in giants and rid the world of the horrible beasts.

I loved the scene where the BFG is having breakfast in the Great Ballroom as that was the only place with high ceilings to accommodate them.  It’s funny how seeing is believing and that as adults we become very sceptical. That’s why I love reading kids/young adults books, in between adult fiction because TV soaps are so depressing and sometimes adult books tend to be to heavy on information. Perhaps I’m just looking for mystery and adventure to escape from the everyday life, I don’t know.

But I do know that every one should read the BFG even if it’s to their son/daughter as a way to read it. It combines everything that Harry Potter does and more. A truly lovely story.

‘Everything is not what it appears to be’

so “Don’t gobblefunk around with words.”