The BFG [Paperback]

Roald Dahl (Author), Quentin Blake (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 7 and up

Luckily for Sophie, the BFG is nothing like his neighbors, whose favorite pastime is guzzling little children!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Evidently not even Roald Dahl could resist the acronym craze of the early eighties. BFG? Bellowing ferret-faced golfer? Backstabbing fairy godmother? Oh, oh ... Big Friendly Giant! This BFG doesn't seem all that F at first as he creeps down a London street, snatches little Sophie out of her bed, and bounds away with her to giant land. And he's not really all that B when compared with his evil, carnivorous brethren, who bully him for being such an oddball runt. After all, he eats only disgusting snozzcumbers, and while the other Gs are snacking on little boys and girls, he's blowing happy dreams in through their windows. What kind of way is that for a G to behave?

The BFG is one of Dahl's most lovable character creations. Whether galloping off with Sophie nestled into the soft skin of his ear to capture dreams as though they were exotic butterflies; speaking his delightful, jumbled, squib-fangled patois; or whizzpopping for the Queen, he leaves an indelible impression of bigheartedness. (Ages 9 to 12) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake are uncanny in their understanding of what children like to read and see. Sophie, an eight-year-old orphan, is kidnapped by the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) and taken to Giantland, where [her] alliance with the BFG and the queen of England results in the capture of the nine evil giants. Children will enjoy this book." --The New York Times Book Review
--Review --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141301058
• ISBN-13: 978-0141301051
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (371 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #494,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful language and characters!, May 22, 2000

By 

Nancy R. Woodington - See all my reviews

This review is from: The BFG (Paperback)

Dahl's superb imagination has created a character, the BFG, who talks so whimsically and winsomely that I laughed out loud while reading this book. His child friend, Sophie, has no trouble understanding him, however, although she sometimes has to translate for less flexible or more pompous adults. The BFG's interactions with his fearsome peers demonstrate a high level of courage, particularly for a comic figure, and his nighttime activities indicate a delicacy of perception that few of us could attain. This is no two-dimensional character, but a real person that one would like to meet. The only fault I have to find with the book is that Sophie's strategy works too flawlessly, leaving no loose ends, no monsters at large who need to be chased. The relaxation of dramatic tension is complete. But then, I'm an adult; children who look under their beds each night would certainly prefer Dahl's ending. When I started reading this to my children, my first-grader, not an eager reader, could not bear to have me stop at the end of a chapter, and actually went on to read the next by himself. Parents, take note!

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars pure, vintage Dahl!!, May 3, 2001

By 

Chess Heart "paxbear" (Canton, OH) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The BFG (Paperback)

Young Sophie lies awake in her orphanage at the Witching Hour! She can't sleep and strange, macabre thoughts go through her head. The real fun begins, however, when she creeps to her window and sees a giant figure poking about in the 2nd floor windows across the street! My gosh, it's a GIANT!! The real fun begins when he kidnaps her from her bed and runs off to the land of giants.

In the hands of a less capable author than Dahl, this plotline would soon fizzle and become ho-hum humdrum. Say what you will, Dahl is a very, VERY capable author and this book is simply fabulous. While most giants are the people eating kind (with colorful names like Childchewer, Bloodbottler and Fleshlumpeater), Sophie is lucky to have been captured by the BFG-- Big Friendly Giant! He's no guzzler of people (known in Giantspeak as "human beans"-- giants don't go to school and their grammer is somewhat lacking) but is rather a gentle soul who has a special trade to ply in the human world. There's only two small problems: the BFG lives in the land of giants where the other louts would only be too glad to guzzle her right up, and there's no food other than a strange, disgusting vegetable called a snozzcumber (it tastes like frog skins and dead fish). So, while Sophie's happy not to have been eaten up, she's none to happy to find that there's always that threat of being discovered and noting for HER to eat. Besides, the other giants (much bigger than the BFG) are constantly running to other countries to guzzle human beans by the cartload (Chille beans are especially yummy, we're told...). Something MUST be done... but what? Maybe she should go tell the queen...

I came to Dahl's work late in life (that is, recently, not in childhood) and have slowly been making my way through his works. So far, "The BFG" ranks as his best work. It is continuously engaging, very funny, and keeps the reader engaged from page 1 all the way through to the end. Young or intermediate readers may have difficulty with some of the phonetically spellings and Dahl-inspired words like "snozzcumber", "whizzpopping" and the generally gobbled-up grammar of the giants' speech. Still, it is a fantastic, fast-paced story that will be enjoyed for years to come by young and old. Highly recommended.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The BFG's the book you've been looking forward to !!!!!!, March 26, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The BFG (Paperback)

This is an extraordinary book, and the reader is immediately drawn into the fascinating tale. It begins like this.........

Sophie is an orphan... One night, the moon was pouring in all it's brightness through her windows, casting light directly on her pillow....., unable to sleep, then, Sophie looks out of the window and.....that's when she finds herself caught by a giant called the BFG (the big Friendly Giant), but a giant so friendly and kind, that when other giants go searching for edible humans every night, he eats horrible cucumber kind of vegetables. Soon after Sophie and the BFG gets to be friends and goes to meet Queen Elizabeth for help. In the end, Sophie gets to live in a big palace with the BFG. I couldn't put this book down, so I read it in one day! It's terribly funny and interesting. It's the kind of book everyone will love reading.