When Sophie saw something coming up the street through the darkness out her window, she never could've imagined the adventure that awaited her. The terrifyingly huge creature walking her way turned out to be a giant - but a friendly one. The BFG (Big Friendly Giant), by name. A giant who does NOT eat children, like all other giants do. A giant who would take Sophie with him to his land of dreams and protect her from the likes of Fleshlumpeater and all the other mean giants like him. Can the BFG and Sophie make the world safe for children again?
I read this book aloud to my 11 year old son, who thought it was absolutely hilarious. The BFG's broken and silly English (full of made-up words and flip-flopped-words and all-smashed-together words) was probably the best part for both of us. The plot felt slow to me, until about the last 1/4, and then it was exciting and my son was always begging for me. The giants are horrible. Dense, but horrible. They actually crunch up and eat children, so that's a bit violent for younger readers. If you can handle that, though, the relationship between Sophie and the BFG is tender and I love that, once again, Dahl finds a way for children to best the scary grown ups (or, in this case, giants) - such an empowering idea.
My boy liked it, I didn't ever super get into it but I don't think Dahl was writing with me in mind, either.
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