Re-discover the BFG (The BFG - Roald Dahl)

Member Name: alocin

Product:	The BFG - Roald Dahl
Date:	11/04/03 (1234 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Dahl's best book, Timeless children's story, Great fun!

Disadvantages: Invented words can get annoying

This was one of my favourite books as a child - I liked all the Roald Dahl books such as Matilda and Danny the Champion of the World but this was the best. Since I saw that it was nominated in the BBC's "Big Read" list of top books I thought that I would re-read it from a slightly older perspective.

The BFG

For anyone who has never read the BFG (you must have been a deprived child) the name stands for the Big Friendly Giant. The story is about a little girl named Sophie - Roald Dahl's granddaughter in real life. The illustrations by Quentin Blake are based on what she looked like as a little girl, and the BFG looks like Roald Dahl himself. She is an orphan who is kidnapped by the BFG, a 24 foot giant one night. The BFG capture dreams and puts them into people's bedrooms at night so they can dream. The BFG is the only nice giant, and there are nine other giants with names such as the Fleshlumpeater who go around eating up little children. Sophie and the BFG go to the Queen of England and come up with a plan to capture the horrible giants so that they can never eat people again. This plan, of course, works and the BFG and Sophie live happily ever after.

Best Bits

I think that my favourite bit in the book is where the Queen, Sophie and the BFG are having breakfast at Buckingham Palace. The Queen's butler has to make a table out of Grandfather clocks and a ping pong table for the BFG to sit at, and he eats dozens and dozens of eggs and sausages. It's just really funny and I thinks it's the best bit. The bit where Sophie reads the labels on the jars of dreams is good too, as is the chapter where the Fleshlumpeater almost eats Sophie who is hiding in a Snozcumber. Sorry if i'm giving things away to people who havn't read it! As an older reader I found myself getting a bit annoyed with all the spelling and grammatical "mistakes" that the BFG makes, and all the invented words he uses suc
h as Frobscottle and Snozcumber. I know those are probably the bits that children like the most though! The story was just as fun as I remembered and I was glad that I had re-read it.

Overall the BFG is probably one of the best childrens books around. It's Roald Dahls best I think, and one that generations of kids can enjoy. Adult readers may feel the same as I do about all the invented words, but if you can get back into a child's mindset I think it would be more fun. One thing though - it seemed a lot shorter now than when I first read it aged about 7 or 8! If you or your children have never read this book then go and borrow it from a library and become a kid again. You'll soon be giggling at whizpopping along with them!

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