roald dahl, quentin blake, the bfg review

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By Helen of Troy on 6th Feb 2007

Helen of Troy's Ratings

Format	Paperback
Value for money	10/10
Overall value	10/10
Helen of Troy's recommendation

Good Points

Great for children to read alone
Great for adults reading to children

Bad Points

General Comments

The BFG is a great book for children, both boys and girls. It is also one of those children's books that I enjoy reading to my eight-year-old son. We have just finished reading it for the second time. I read to my son at bedtime, he gets one chapter of his chosen book read to him each night. The chapters in BFG vary in length but most are just enough for bed-time reading. I think if Ricky chose his all-time favourite book, this will be it. I feel it is probably best suited to children of six to ten years, as very small children may not like the horrible mean giants in Giant Country! If you are at all worried your child may be a little scared, don't read it at bed-time.



The story is about a small orphan girl called Sophie, who befriended a Big Friendly Giant.
One night, she couldn't sleep so she decided to look out of the window of the Orphanage Dormitory. It was the Witching hour when everything was still and quiet, everyone else was fast asleep.
Across the street, in the moonlight, she saw a large shadowy figure. She couldn't quite make out what or who it was at first, then she noticed it was peering through a window. It had a large trumpet and a suitcase, and was draped in a long black cloak. Suddenly the figure spotted her, he had been seen so couldn't take any chances. He rushed to the other side of the Street and plucked the frightened little Sophie from the safety of the orphanage and took her back to Giant Country with him.
In Giant Country there were other giants, bigger and meaner than the BFG, they would often pick on the smaller giant because he was gentle and friendly and much smaller than they were. The large, mean giants would take off each night to eat 'Human Beans', which disgusted the BFG. He had to be content with eating disgusting Snozzcumbers.
The BFG collected dreams and with his trumpet blew them into children's bedrooms at night, which was what he was doing when Sophie first spotted him.
Sophie and the BFG became good friends but Sophie wanted to stop these nasty giants from eating all the little chidlers (children) and with the help of the BFG plotted a very clever little plan to put a stop to these monstrous activities. But how would they get anyone to believe them?
Sophie decided to go straight to the top. She decided they should go and tell her Majesty the Queen of England. The BFG, under Sophie's instruction, mixed up a special dream recipe for the Queen so that she would see what was going on in a dream, then wake to find Sophie sitting on her window-sill to confirm that what she had dreamt was actually happening. This was the only way they could make her believe them.
Well, then the Army and the Navy were called in to capture the offending nasty giants and bring them to justice......



Roald Dahl wrote some excellent books for children, a little scary in places (which many children love!) and a lot of fun. As an Author of children's books he not only is the favourite of my children, but I would much prefer to read his books to my children that those of any other Author.

Total Respect: +2