The BFG (My Roald Dahl) (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: yellow wasteland, human beans, nine giants, Big Friendly Giant, Head of the Army, Giant Country (more...)

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

Dahl's elemental fix on kids' consciousness gets this off to a surefire shivery start, with orphan Sophie, awake st the witching hour, snatched from her bed by a giant hand and carried off to a land of giants clear off the last page of the atlas. But Sophie's kidnapper is really friendly (hence BFG for Big Friendly Giant) and does not eat humans as she had feared, but occupies himself gathering and dispensing dreams. He also expresses himself in a mixed-up, cutesy manner that is simply tiresome. Nearby, however, are nine still-bigger giants who do eat humans ("I is a nice and jumbly giant" but "human beans is like strawbunkles and cream to those giants," says the BFG) - and it's to protect the world from them that Sophie and the BFG hatch a scheme: He will mix a dream from his collection and send it to the Queen of England to apprise her of the threat; then, when she awakens, Sophie will be on her windowsill, and the BFG waiting in the garden, to convince her that the dream is true. And so it is that we find Sophie and the BFG breakfasting with Her Majesty . . . and the BFG violating all decorum, even to letting fly a glumptious whizzpopper (kids would call it a fart). Nevertheless the Queen is impressed and sends off her military men, who, under the BFG's direction, rope the sleeping giants and haul them back by helicopter to be imprisoned in a giant pit. This is all told in Dahl's higgledy-piggledy home-made manner, which is rarely disarming here despite the pandering. And it's hard to find the bumble-tongued BFG endearing. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Puffin Books (September 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141322624
• ISBN-13: 978-0141322629
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (340 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,424 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Nancy R. Woodington (Connecticut) - 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!

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Chess Heart "paxbear" (Cattauraugus County, NY) - See all my reviews

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.

12 of 13 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.