THE BFG - by ROALD DAHL

Book Review: The BFG By Roald Dahl


The BFG

I got interested in books by Roald Dahl because of my friends. They first gave me ‘Charlie and the chocolate factory’. After that, I thought I should read more books by Roald Dahl. Hence I ordered ‘the BFG’ from my library. I wondered what the word “BFG” meant. The name didn’t give me a clue about what the book was about.    

What's in there?

The book is about a girl called ‘Sophie’ and our hero ‘the BFG’. Sophie lives in an orphanage in England. This is where the book starts. One night, when Sophie looks out of the window she sees a tall, dark, big shape. She finds the shape very scary…so did I when I read about it. When moonlight falls on its face, Sophie sees that, that shape has two wrinkled eyes, a nose as sharp as a knife and two enooooormous ears. The figure suddenly looks at Sophie and starts coming towards her orphanage. Sophie dives under her blanket in fright. Then, the big face of that giant person appears at Sophie’s window and through the window comes a big hand. It picks Sophie up with her blanket. Soooo frightening…! With Sophie in his hands, the giant starts galloping very fast. It suddenly goes in a higher gear and the wind starts whipping at Sophie’s face. The landscape becomes blurrrrr. Sophie starts feeling as if the giant is flying and crossing seas and mountains. They suddenly come in a country with blue rocks. The giant comes in front of a gigantic stone and easily rolls it aside as if it were a football. A hole appears behind the rock. It is so big that even the Giant doesn’t need to stoop while going in. The giant again moves the stone and Sophie feels that the giant has taken her for breakfast. But soon she understands that the giant is in fact ‘a BIG FRIENDLY GIANT’ and is called the “BFG’…this gives her much relief.

The BFG shows Sophie the other giants and tells her never to go out alone when they are around because they are man-eating giants and would guzzle her up in a minute….she being a ‘human bean’ in his language for the giants. They go to eat ‘human beans’ every night. Every night the BFG also blows dreams…yes real dreams! …into little Children’s bedrooms. The author has named these dreams. The good ones are called ‘the golden Fizz Wizard’s dreams’ and the bad ones are called a ‘troggle humper’. And there are many others. The BFG has one more gift. His ears..that can pick any sound that goes around the world at any time of the day. He uses his ears to catch and identify dreams. The BFG becomes Sophie’s best friend. Both of them do many good things together….one of them being helping the queen of England to save many children from the man eating giants. To experience all the exciting things in the story, you must read the book!

My take:

This Book is one of my Dahl’s favourite books. I have, atleast ten times read some of the parts of this book over and over again. I loved the part when the BFG, Sophie and the Army of England capture the 9 man-eating giants. Can you imagine, these giants have names like Flesh Lump Eater, Gizzard Gulper, Blood Bottler, Butcher Boy, Child Chewer, Maid Masher and three others…Read them to know them! Did I scare you with these names?…Don’t be scared….These giants will not come to guzzle you…they don’t even know you….and if they do, I am sure the BFG will help you. The book is extremely engaging. You shall have to do a ‘counter reading’ spell on yourself to stop reading, once you have it in your hands. I hope you read it.

If you read it 2 hours a day, you will surely complete it in 5 to 6 days.

My score of Paani Puris:

😋😋😋😋😋   

         

- Ninad, the greedy reader