The BFG

The BFG

Author: Roald Dahl

ISBN: 0142410381

Publisher: Puffin, 2007

Age: 9-12

Genre: Humor, Fantasy

Summary: A young orphan named Sophie cannot sleep one night, so she sneaks out of bed and looks out the window during the “witching hour”.  Instead of just seeing the town and no people she sees a curiously large thing moving towards her down the main street of the town.  She realizes that it is a giant!  He stops at the neighbor’s house, and using a trumpet type thing he blows something into the room of the young kid.  She’s noticed by the giant and he grabs her, bedding and all, and takes her back to his cave in giant land.  She finds out that he is the BFG or “Big Friendly Giant” and that he isn’t like the scary, people eating other giants.  He makes and blows dreams instead.  So she and the BFG hatch a plot to do away with the people eating giants and make the world a better place.

Read A-likes: James and the Giant Peach; The Witches; Matilda; and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Personal Thoughts: Roald Dahl is one of my all time favorite children’s authors.  I have loved and read his books since I was a child and frequently suggest him to tweens and teens alike.  Even adults still enjoy reading his classic stories even though they are far beyond the reading level.  The BFG is one of my top four favorites of all Dahl’s books.  The sheer imagination and blending of humor, fantasy and reality is amazing.  The creative wording is classic Dahl, and enough to make you wish you could remember them to use in everyday speaking.