Isaac Blevins's Reviews > The BFG

I don't know how I missed reading The BFG when I was growing up. I always heard the title being passed back and forth as a suggestion for a great read...but somehow I got it mixed up with the Oscar Wilde fairytale The Selfish Giant. Other than the fact that both stories center around a giant, there is no similarity at all. I read The BFG aloud to a class of second graders (which may be the perfect way to enjoy a Roald Dahl novel!). I must say, that I fell in love with the characters in the novel just as my listeners did. How can you not love a giant (though one much smaller than other giants) with big ears who confuses his words and chooses to live on a disgusting vegetable rather than eat "human beans"? When Sophie, an orphan, sees the giant blowing dreams into the windows of a house across the street from her orphanage, she is taken by the giant and transported to his home. Once there, she discovers that the other giants feed on humans and that they must be stopped.
Aside from being a genuinely good story, the novel is also very, very funny. The children roared with laughter as the giant misused words and explained his ways to Sophie - I laughed at the clever jokes that Dahl seems to always include for the adults who may be reading his works to children....
This book has made me fall in love with Roald Dahl all over again. I can't imagine a better author to share with children who need a little magic, a little adventure and a little nonsense in their lives.