Genre: Children’s Fiction, Middle-Grade
Pages: 199
Published by Puffin Books
Captured by a giant! The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is far too nice and jumbly. It’s lucky for Sophie that he is. Had she been carried off in the middle of the night by the Bloodbottler, the Fleshlumpeater, the Bonecruncher, or any of the other giants-rather than the BFG-she would have soon become breakfast.
When Sophie hears that they are flush-bunking off in England to swollomp a few nice little chiddlers, she decides she must stop them once and for all. And the BFG is going to help her!
| My son certainly enjoyed this book as I read it to him every night. He thought it was amusing, weird [per his description,] and I could see him process the world as well as actions that Dahl wrote. If my son were reviewing this I’m pretty sure he would give it 5 stars.
He is not. I am! So, Dahl creates a believable world, our world with giants in it. Giants are believed to be nothing but a fairytale, horror stories to tell a child at night, except Sophie is awake during the Witching Hour and what she sees is a giant and the giant sees her! He scoops her up and brings her back to Giant Land! He creates a visual of the giants, a language that is the BFG’s [Big Friendly Giant] as well as the other giants. He created this entire lore in regard to them and made it interesting, somewhat frightening and yet funny to a child’s mind. The BFG, unlike the others, is a kind, sweet giant man and together he and Sophie set off into an adventure – albeit Sophie is a little hesitant and maybe a touch too snobby for my liking, but she soon warms up to the BFG and together they decide to make a difference. While I can appreciate Dahl’s ingenuity in thinking up a language entirely belonging to the Giants [fizzbunkling, frobscottle, whizzpopping,] for my adult mind it was very difficult to wrap my head around and since I was reading this out loud my tongue did NOT want to cooperate. It was an element that most certainly did work for a child, though, I could see that in my son’s eyes. A story that my son will cherish and remember, I think, even in his adulthood. |
Book Savvy Reviews 
Aww I used to love this book so much as a child 🙂 I’m intrigued to see if I have a similar reaction to you, when I reread it as an adult (which will hopefully be soon!)
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I loved it when I was little and I had all but forgotten it all until the announcement of an upcoming movie. I was thrilled to find this book at a recent book sale, too!
It isn’t that I didn’t enjoy it, because I did.. it was just difficult and I’m unsure if that is because I shed my child-like mind. My 5 year old absolutely loved this book and was really upset when we finished.
I just found that – from an adult’s perspective – it was difficult to find myself engrossed in the book because of the language used. I am the same when those who write with heavily accented speech [eg. D’ye no ken] same goes for the nonsensical speech in this book.
It is a fun read for a kid though. Especially imagining a world with giants who devour ‘human beans’ at night!
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I’m the same, I hate when authors over-emphasise accents. I also recently read A Clockwork Orange (bit of a different genre!) and the language baffled me! X
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That is on my TBR list! Oi… Wish me luck!
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As a child I enjoyed the witches and George’s marvellous medicine, but reading them to my children a few years ago was a very different experience. I didn’t enjoy them half as much as an adult. And the BFG was a hard one to read aloud, I was glad when the kids decided to read the rest of the books by themselves.
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As a little girl, I loved The Witches, oh it was creepy for sure, but I loved it. I also loved James and The Giant Peach. I read the latter when I was little, I loved The BFG when I was little and while I had never read Charlie and The Chocolate Factory it is one of my favorite movies [Gene Wilder!] I loved the premise.
I think he’s a rather splendid writer, in that he creates such fantastical and even nonsensical worlds that as we age – even if we have open minds – our adult minds have difficulties grasping his nonsensical writings!
I *adore* Dahl, and I can see why anyone would want to snatch up his stories for a movie because the ideas are there and on screen it makes more sense than mulling around in your head – at least as an adult.
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