ISBN: 9780141322629
One night, a young girl, unable to sleep makes her way to the window and spies a mysterious giant, with a suitcase and some sort of a trumpet. Discovering that he has been spotted this giant kidnaps the little girl, Sophie, and takes her off to Giant Country. There Sophie discovers that this giant, The Big Friendly Giant, is not like the other giants. He is much smaller than them for one thing, but also, they are murderers who delight in guzzling up human beans, whereas the BFG is only interested in sharing Dreams with people. Can Sophie and the BFG come up with a plan to defeat the like of The Fleshlumpeater and The Childchewer.
When I was around ten or so I went through my Roald Dahl phase. I loved his books so much. This and Danny, Champion of the World were my favourites. But that was twenty years ago. For a while I’ve been meaning to revisit the strangeness of Dahl’s imagination. Both Carl and Richard recently read his biography and put me in the mood for some Dahl, so when we got some replacement copies in at work I took the opportunity to take this one and see if it was as good as I remember.
And it was.
I loved The BFG and his crazy made-up words and descriptions. And Sophie, with her “that doesn’t exist, oh, well, if you say so, maybe it does” is a delight. And what child could ever forget the wonderful whizzpoppers! Brilliant.
Other reviews: The best little bookshelf in Texas ; (if you have a link to share just let me know)
In BUY, Dahl talks a little about the persons on whom some of the characters in this book were based. Pretty interesting, and it made me want to reread this one too. And thanks for the link-up. Much appreciated!
Richard R.´s last blog post ..Forgotten Book- In Kensington Gardens Once…
Oops, that should have said "BOY". Darn, I have to proof these things more carefully.
Richard R.´s last blog post ..Forgotten Book- In Kensington Gardens Once…
That's the beauty of the internet, your mistakes are always there to remind you :)
Sophie was based on his granddaughter, or named after her. I read somewhere that Dahl used to creep outside his children's bedrooms with some sort of trumpet-like yoke and pretend to be blowing in dreams. How cool is that!