The giant laughs and explains that most giants do eat human beings (which he pronounces as "human beans"), and that the people's origins affect their taste. I liked the chapter named 'Dream'. That was pretty hilarious. I was laughing out loud while reading this chapter. This was full of adventures. I think any kids could easily have loved this. I've also come to appreciate Dahl’s wry humour and his new never-been-seen-on-dictionaries vocabularies have marked his writing style as unique.

The Heads of the Army and the Air Force: Two bombastic officers answering to the Queen. Voiced by Michael Knowles and Ballard Berkeley in the 1989 film and portrayed by Chris Shields and Matt Frewer in the 2016 film. Without doubt, Roald Dahl is one of the most beloved children's authors in the English language. And, among an impressive body of work, The BFG stands tall as one of his greatest creations. From its instantly-recognisable characters, to the light-hearted nature of its prose, there's a lot to like about this classic children's story. So, if you find yourself looking for a book to cover in your guided reading sessions, then we can't recommend it highly enough. Another Roald Dahl book that I read to my daughter (well, mostly I read it, she read a few chapters to me), about a chapter a night, most nights...

I'm not going to lie, I'm rather disappointed with BFG (which I've never read before)-- but is the favorite Dahl book of many of my friends. I found it to be pretty grating and not that pleasant a read for the following reasons: You is not very clever,' the Giant said, moving his great ears in and out. 'I thought all human beans is full of brains, but your head is emptier than a bundongle.' 'Do you like vegetables?' Sophie asked, hoping to steer the conversation towards a slightly less dangerous kind of food. 'You is trying to change the subject,' the Giant said sternly. 'We is having an interesting babblement about the taste of the human bean. The human bean is not a vegetable.' 'Oh, but the bean is a vegetable,' Sophie said. 23 Sophiechen und der Riese" (in German). Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. 1985. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016 . Retrieved 30 June 2016.

Just in case we've managed to win you over, this resource is perfect for supporting your teaching on The BFG. If you like, why not use these handy guided reading questions to test your class or child's understanding of the story? The questions are sorted into AF2, AF3, AF4/5 and AF6, and we've also included some harder questions if you'd like an extra challenge. Another niggling doubt about the book was the resolution with the giants being imprisoned in a giant pit, doomed to eat disgusting snozzcumbers for the rest of their lives. I think that Dahl was well-intentioned in including the conversation between the BFG and Sophie about how humans make their own rules, and giants make their own rules and that the rules don't coincide. When I got to this conversation, which included the the BFG basically telling Sophie that it was somewhat judgmental or short-sighted of her to immediately think of the other giants as bad, because humans, unlike giants, kill their own kind all the time, I thought that the story was incredibly promising. However, the story ended as they typically do, especially in "children's" literature, with the "bad" guys getting captured and the "good" guys living happily ever after without the moral ambiguity that Dahl touched upon in that one particular conversation between Sophie and the BFG. I think that it might have been more interesting if it was ever brought up that perhaps giants just eat humans just as humans eat bacon, sausage, and eggs, just as Sophie, the BFG, and the Queen did at the end of the story, and that perhaps the solution would be to respect all life, just as the BFG always had (before uncharacteristically eating all that bacon and sausage at the end of the novel) because he could hear the world's suffering. Instead, as I mentioned, the story has a more typical ending, and it is emotionally acceptable that the human-eating giants are imprisoned with disgusting food for the rest of their lives (and the Queen is humane for imprisoning them rather than killing them, to boot) only because Dahl portrays the giants as disgusting throughout the entire novel. Although the giants are portrayed as mean in the scene during which they toss around the BFG, emphasis is continuously on how the giants are "half-naked and disgusting" in their appearance and smell. Thus, emphasis is placed on their physical, rather than moral disgustingness, and to me, this is too reminiscent of the way that we vilify those who are different than us to justify our inhuman treatment of them.

Explore our most popular collections

Dahl, Roald (2005). Uriașul cel príetenos (in Romanian). Translated by Mădălina Monica Badea. Bucharest: RAO International. OCLC 63542578. Well, that is the nicest present anybody is ever giving me in my whole life!' cried the BFG. 'Are you sure you is not twiddling my leg?' 'Of course not,' Sophie said. 'I just love the way you talk.' 'How wondercrump!' cried the BFG, still beaming. 'How whoopsey-splunkers! How absolutely squiffling! I is all of a stutter.' 'Listen,' Sophie said. 'We don't have to eat snozzcumbers. In the fields around our village there are all sorts of lovely vegetables like cauliflowers and carrots. Why don't you get some of those next time you go visiting?' The BFG raised his great head proudly in the air. 'I is a very honourable giant,' he said. 'I would rather be chewing up rotsome snozzcumbers than snitching things from other people.' 'You stole me,' Sophie said. 'I did not steal you very much,' said the BFG, smiling gently. 'After all, you is only a tiny little girl.' 46 The BFG explains, in a unique and messy speech, that his nine neighbours are much bigger and stronger giants, who all happily eat humans every night. They vary their choice of destination both to avoid detection and because the people's origins affect their taste. For example, people from Greece taste greasy, so no giant goes there, while people from Panama taste like hats. As he will never allow Sophie to leave in case she tells anyone of his existence, the BFG reveals the purpose of his suitcase and trumpet: he catches dreams in Dream Country, collects them in jars, and gives the good ones to children all around the world, but destroys the bad ones. Since he does not eat people, he must eat the only crop which grows on his land —-- the repulsive snozzcumber, which looks like a cucumber. Reading it as an adult, gives the book a slightly different flavour. For starters, the hilarious nature of the language is blatant. And it just feels funnier. I was invested in this as a child, I cared about the characters and I was worried about what could happen. Now it just seems all so ridiculous. Kirka, Danica. "Critics reject changes to Roald Dahl books as censorship". abc NEWS . Retrieved 3 March 2023.

Sophie, a little "human bean," gets up one night and spies from her window, a long spindly shape creeping around in the dark. Much to her horror, a real-life giant bounds up to her window and snatches her. He whisks her away to giant country where she learns that every night, giants steal humans for their dinner and would eat her in a heartbeat. The start of the book begins with an eight-year-old orphan girl named Sophie lying in bed in an orphanage run by Mrs. Clonkers. And that’s why Roald Dahl is such a successful children’s author; here he does exactly what the best books in the genre do. He gives you a glimpse of the real world, of the standard realities of everyday, then underneath it all he reveals something spectacular: he reveals fantasy. Time and time again a child is whisked off to experience the adventure of a lifetime. And when reading his books as a child of similar age, it’s so easy to imagine yourself in the shoes of one of his protagonists. I'm sure I would've liked this book more if I had completely understood all BFG said but most of the time I didn't really understand what he said but I really loved the illustrations! they were great and I loved them.

Keep in touch

In the mid-to-late 20thC there was less emphasis on paedophilia than there is now, and I wonder if this book could have been written at all in the 21stC. Ironically, this book is banned in some educational districts in the US for 'teaching poor moral values' and cannibalism. Ridiculous. Children laugh at those sort of things. I don't believe in banning books, but Dahl was an unpleasant character and it is wilful blindness to ignore the feet of clay our heroes sometimes have as we place laurel wreaths on their brows.