The BFG
by Roald Dahl

The letters in the title stand for "Big Friendly Giant," a character readers of Danny the Champion of the World will already know and love. The BFG stands 24 feet tall and strides around the streets at night, poking his long thin trumpet through the windows of children's bedrooms, and blowing lovely dreams at them while they sleep. But when a little orphan girl named Sophie sees him from her dormitory window, he is forced to snatch her and take her to his mountain lair. He couldn't risk letting the word get out about giants.

The BFG is a friendly giant, though. Unlike the other nine giants in Giant Country, who are all twice as big, twice as stupid, and twice as mean. Those giants all have names like "Bloodbottler" and "Bonecruncher," and they go out every night and eat dozens of innocent "human beans." They look down their ugly noses at the BFG, who is the runt of the litter and the only vegetarian among them. The poor BFG has a hard time of it all around, because the only vegetable that grows in Giant Country is the horrid snozzcumber.

But it isn't until the nasty giants go striding off to England to feast on school children, that Sophie and the BFG hatch their brilliant plan to put a stop to the butchery once and for all. In a silly and exciting adventure that includes Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, an extremely resourceful butler, and a lot of military hardware, everything is finally set right.

Of all Dahl's books, this is the one that most made me appreciate what a wonderful wordsmith Dahl was. The BFG has a very peculiar way of speaking, mixing up a lot of words and making up as many more. The master who coined "scrumdiddlyumptious" here creates a multitude of new words, all of which tickle the funny bone and get their meaning across in a truly magical way. And as a feat of pure story telling, The BFG holds its own alongside the best of Dahl's books.

Robbie Fischer
Arizona USA

Recommended Age: 8+

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