The BFG

Penguin Books

The BFG
Roald Dahl
1982

The Summary
"Captured by a giant!

"The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant.  He is far too nice and jumbly.  It's lucky for Sophie that he is.  Had she been carried off in the middle of the night by the Bloodbottler, or any of the other giants--rather than the BFG--she would have soon become breakfast.  When Sophie hears that the giants are flush-bunking off to England to swallomp a few nice chiddlers, she decides she must stop them once and for all.  And the BFG is going to help her!"

The Good
I had fun with The BFG.

It's an odd little story, principally on par with Dahl's other works, James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but it's really quite a wonderful story.  It's funny, it has endearing characters, and, honestly, it has these adorable moments--mostly when the BFG fudges his words and leaves Sophie positively bumfuzzled--that wrench your heart and leave you smiling or laughing by turns.

Personally, I fell in love with the big friendly giant and I was always tickled by his antics, fascinated by his dream catching excursions, and, of course, warmed by his fondness for little orphaned Sophie.  Their relationship is so pure and sweet, and I couldn't help wishing I'd met a BFG of my own.

It's a great children's book.  I can certainly see what it's a classic.

The Bad
If I have one regret it's that I didn't take the time to find an audiobook copy of The BFG.  This would have been a magnificent book to have read to me.

The Ugly
I'll be honest, I was a little disturbed to learn that the giants ate people.  I never imagined The BFG would have such a dark and terrible beginning, but, then again, I should know by now that Roald Dahl was never afraid to approach the darker, more unsavory aspects of a story.

I mean, think about it:  Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is very poor, so poor he cannot always afford food; James in James and the Giant Peach lost his parents to a rogue rhinoceros and lives with his cruel, vindictive aunts; and Sophie in The BFG is an orphan who is faced with horrible flesh-eating, bone-crunching, and chiddler-eating giants.

Seriously, it seems like all the children involved in Dahl's books face extraordinary hardship and it's absolutely heart-breaking.