Herein, a Nicholas Nickleby-reading, dream-blowing, runt giant (he is only 24 feet tall) with super hearing kidnaps a young girl (Sophie) from an orphanage, after she sees him out and about.

“‘I did not steal you very much’, said the BFG, smiling gently” (p. 54).

When Sophie finds out what the other, larger giants are doing on a regular basis, the race to stop them is on. Along the way, we have to question whether humans need to be stopped, too:

“She was beginning to wonder whether humans were actually any better than giants” (p. 79).

What are the giants doing that is so evil? Eating another type of animal, besides themselves—namely, people (or “human beans”)! And, specifically, they are eating children who they pluck out of beds at night! In fact, I think it is accurate to characterize this as a relatively scary kids horror story. On top of the child-eating, there is talk of executions (“We are chopping off people’s heads like you are chopping parsley,” p. 174). In other words, I would hesitate to give this to a very young child to read, especially if the child is disposed to being frightened.

“Little chiddlers is not so tough to eat as old grandmamma, so says the Childchewing Giant” (p. 76).

Me quede asombrada con esta lectura, desde luego este hombre era superior en imaginación, que capacidad de inventiva, en un mismo libro mi hizo sentir un millar de sensaciones, reí, me emocione, me asuste, me sorprendí y un montón de cosas más, pero en definida me lo leí de una sentada totalmente absorta, bueno miento pare una ratito, para descansar de tanta locura.

Esta lectura es infantil juvenil, aunque a decir verdad pienso que no se tiene edad para leer cierta clase de libros, ni ciertas historias, da igual la edad que se tenga, y sin son infantiles además no hará volver al niño que un día fuimos.

El libro empieza con una frase que utilizo a horas muy tardías de la noche, casi son madrugadas, la hora mágica, y es que hay una hora exacta, que para mí resulta mágica, solo hay silencio y mucha paz, y eso de la “hora mágica” eso es lo que me hizo seguir con la lectura por que no estaba muy segura que este libro me iba a gustar.

Habla de sueños, pero de esos que tenemos cuando dormimos plácidamente, este gigante atrapa sueños y los colecciona en unos tarros y con su trompeta sopla los sueños cuando no nos damos cuenta. “ja, ja, ja”.

Repleto de fantásticas frases sobre los sueños, creadas con verdadero ingenio, creatividad y con una imaginación desbordante.

Bueno otro de las cosas por destacar de esta lectura es la forma de hablar del gigante, lo que me hizo carcajear, fijaros que llegue a pensar “este libro está mal maquetado”, pero no, estaba perfectamente, madre mía lo que me pude reír, pero ya cuando leí “Dalas Chickens” en vez “Charles Dickens” ya dije no puede ser verdad, este hombre es un genio y me pase un buen rato a carcajada limpia, os encontrareis un vocabulario muy peculiar e imposible no partirse de risas y la nena Sofía por detrás corrigiéndole.

Y por cierto muy visuales ilustraciones acompañan a esta fantasiosa lectura.

Por otra parte este libro está lleno de mensajes y unas muy interesantes conversaciones entre Sofía y el gigante y la conclusión que saque de esta lectura fue que no debemos nunca generalizar, ni meter a todos en el mismo saco, que en un grupo de gente donde haya una persona que no se comporta correctamente, no significa que los demás no lo hagan.

Pues eso es todo amigos, que me encantó meterme en esta mágica lectura, trasportándome al mundo de los sueños, que me dejo Ojiplática, que tengáis dulces sueños y espero nunca sean pescadillas. “ja, ja, ja”.


Posdata: Pero nunca olvidéis que la historia que cuenta un libro no siempre es igual.


Extractos del libro:


Los sueños son invisibles hasta que les capturas.

Si pones la cantidad necesaria de todos los ingredientes, te saldrá el pastel que quieras, pues con los sueños sucede lo mismo.

Somehow, I managed to grow up and never read this book. It's a BOB title next year, so I figured I should knock it out, plus hey--I liked "The Enormous Crocodile" and "The Witches" and I loved "Mathilda" and "James and the Giant Peach"...let's do this thing.

No. Just--no. It had an enticing beginning. But that's about it. At first, I thought maybe it was just a book that I would've enjoyed more had I read it when I was a child (similar to how I feel about the movie "Legend"--that I would've enjoyed it more had I first watched it when I was younger and not in my mid-20's). To be perfectly honest, by the time I finally got to main conflict of the giants heading out to eat scads of English children, I started skimming chapters because I just couldn't bear to suffer through this book any longer. At first I thought that this made me a despicable human being; after all, isn't this considered a classic, well-loved children's book? However, there is a small, but very real, sect of readers out there who feel the same way I do. So while I may share a minority viewpoint, I take comfort in the fact that I am not alone.

Seriously, I taste bile. I would give this negative stars if I could.

I grinned from ear to ear, I laughed out loud, and I even nodded in grave seriousness. These are the reactions  The BFG had evoked from me.

n
‘Human beans is the only animals that is killing their own kind. Even poisnowse snakes is never killing each other. Nor is the most fearsome creatures like tigers and rhinostossterisses. None of them is ever killing their own kind. Has you ever thought about that?’

- The BFGn

(If you're amused or puzzled at the poor usage of grammar and spellings, I don't quite blame you.)

This was so delightful! Roald Dahl’s crammed in a lot of odd, new words in here - as usual - and they often cracked me up. What's more,  The BFG is also ironic at times and it put me to ponder about the ways of humans.

The Big Friendly Giant is the only one of his kind to disapprove of eating human beings. He was out one night, blowing dreams into sleeping children’s windows when he was spotted by Sophie.

In his hand went and then, he kidnapped her right out of the orphanage bedroom!

The two shared a couple of long conversations about all sorts of topics (some conversations is quite silly, some make you wonder). Before long, they realized they had to do something about the man-eating giants.


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.

It was the movie trailer that pushed me to read the written work and I have no regrets. I can't wait to see how it all played out onscreen!

My sweet six year old picked the BFG as our next read-aloud book after finishing  Matilda. It stared out well and he giggled every time the giant said something goofy but as the chapters went on I could tell his interest was waning. When we read Matilda and  The Mouse and the Motorcycle he would beg nearly every night for an extra chapter. With the BFG things were a bit different, around the middle he started choosing to watch tv for a half hour before bed instead of a chapter.

However, once we got to about the last 5 chapters he became very interested again because there was more action happening.

I still very much enjoy Roald Dahl's style, even as an adult, and I am sure this won't be our last read-aloud from his body of work.

Few children's books captivate me like The BFG. Roald Dahl's ability to create magical worlds is unparalleled, and his repulsive man-eating giants strike just the right balance between kid's nightmare and comedy.

And of course, the character of The BFG himself is just gorgeous. Not to mention his scrumdiddlyumptious way of speaking, which always used to make me laugh!

My boys love this book - which just goes to show, some kids books are timeless. No doubt we'll all be reading it to their kids too, in the future!

Ένα από τα αγαπημένα μου παιδικά βιβλία.Μαγικός Roald Dahl.

This is a short blogpost taken from Thoughts on Roald Dahl: The BFG, The Witches & Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The BFG is my second favourite Roald Dahl novel after Matilda. I watched the animated film as a child and now I realise it's a flawless adaptation. I adored fearless Sophie and the Big Friendly Giant, and their friendship, although that moment when The BFG first sees Sophie still gives me the chills! The BFG is a classic Roald Dahl story, full of dark humour – the other giants really are brutal, especially as they love to eat poor innocent children. It's magical, whimsical and the broken English was the perfect touch. It doesn't matter how 'silly' the worlds are, Roald Dahl still pulls you into his fantasy creation and makes it believable. I just wish I had the adaptation on DVD so I could watch it again!

Don't gobblefunk around with words.

I also reviewed this book over on Pretty Books.

I LOVE the vernacular! Whizzbangers, snozcombers...

I've read this out loud to my children any number of times and I get very, very into the voices, so they love it. This time I listened to Natasha Richards read it and she did a beautiful job! Of course, she's English so was a natural. No non-English person can "be" the Queen as well as an English person, but leaving that aside, she was perfect!

Dahl is a master at weaving these wonderfully empowering tales using nonsense. Not only his situations are nonsense, but so is the vocabulary he uses. Doesn't matter. Children are always the hero and children reading his books feel there must be a hero inside of them as well. That's the beauty of his work.

I am a bit hesitant to see the movie because I have very vivid images of Sophie and the BFG in my mind, and have for years, but I just keep telling myself that no movie will take those images away. Here's hoping it won't.

A fantastic story about a misunderstood giant and a brave little girl. My kids and I loved this story but never saw the movie because we were scared to be disappointed. Dahl's stories are always full of wonderful humour and inventiveness and this was definitely one of his most imaginative. A wonderful and beautiful masterpiece.

One of my goals for 2017 is to read every book by Roald Dahl that I can get my hands on. I really enjoyed re-reading this book, since I haven't read it since middle school.

In the middle of the night many people are eaten by the Bloodbottler, the Fleshlumpeater, the Bonecruncher, or any of the other giants-rather than the BFG. However, Sophie is lucky! She is captured by the BFG. He is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is nice and caring. When Sophie finds out that other giants eat people, she makes it her goal to stop them.

This is one of the books that helped to start my love affair with reading. Reading it again almost 20 years later is like slipping on my most loved and comfiest sweat pants. That is truly one of the best feelings in the world! I was worried that the story would seem childish to me now that I’m older than it’s intended audience but if anything I fell more in love with it!