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've just finished reading a book written by a big friendly giant! This is amazing!!

I wasn't suppose to read this kids book at my late twenties though, yet I've read it and loved it!

Sometimes when you feel llike drowning into your thoughts or stuck in life all you need is a kids book to ease your mind!

Second read
Loved rereading it!

First read
I never read this story as a kid, so it was all new to me. I loved the human aspects (and morals) in this novel and the dreaming parts were interesting too. So yes basically I really enjoyed this book and I cannot wait to see the movie this week! :)

Loved it! <3

This is the funniest Roald Dahl I've read so far :P It's witty, ironic, and most of all silly!

Spielberg made this book into a movie! Def gonna watch it

...BFG hears all the whispers of the world...

This was probably one of my most favorite books, by my favorite author, when I was a kid. Going to go back and reread them and gift them to my niece and nephews who are totally missing out by not having read these!!

I loved the BFG as a kid and I still do. Roald Dahl is one of my favourite children authors of all time because he always managed to transport me to another world. The main character a young girl who loves to read, so you instantly feel a connected to her, and who doesn't love the Big Friendly Giant.

This is a story of great friendship no matter how different we are the a story the underdogs and adventure.

"A whizzpopper!" cried the BFG, beaming at her. "Us giants is making whizzpoppers all the time! Whizzpopping is a sign of happiness. It is music in our ears! You surely is not telling me that a little whizzpopping if forbidden among human beans?"

"Don't gobblefunk around with words."

"Meanings is not important, said the BFG. I cannot be right all the time. Quite often I is left instead of right."

Plus the silliness it wouldn't be a Roald Dahl without the silliness.

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.

Hello fellow “human beans,” grab a snozzcumber and gather round to listen to the BFG. This audiobook was super fun and interactive!!

We’ve all heard about the “witching hour” and what it can bring about, but did you know that you could possibly be kidnapped by a giant during the witching hour?? Well, Sophie didn’t either.

“The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world to themselves.”

So if you are looking for a creative and fun story that uses words like “whizzpopper” and my personal favorite “blood bottler” (lol!) then this is the way to go. Ever sense hearing the term blood bottler I’ve had it stuck in my head (especially how the BFG says it), and I’ve severely wanted to just randomly call a random person that haha!! Anyway, I’m so looking forward to seeing the film adaptation for the first time!

I’ll admit I didn’t even know much about giants until this story (other than Jack and the Beanstalk), so it was quite informative. I absolutely loved how certain giants had specific acquired tastes for particular types of humans. Quite funny! Who are we to get in the way of the giants and their appetites haha? Overall, cute story.

Such a sweet book ! I totally loved it!

Do you know what the BFG stood for before his publisher told him he had to think of other words for the acronym? Dahl wasn't joking either, not at all. This story is of a man's interest in a prepubescent girl. The first thing he does is enter her bedroom in the middle of the night, blow "dust" over her and kidnap her. Taking her away from the orphanage she lives in to the land of the extremely unfriendly giants who, in the original draft forced the little girl to look at their giant 'clubs'. But the BFG's different, he's friendly....grooming It all ends with the little girl giving the BFG kisses and living next door to him and everyone is very happy. Dahl sees himself as the BFG giving Sophie, children, a new way to think, different from human adults, who don't even believe in giants.

It is an inventive story without doubt, and all fairy stories require you to absolutely suspend disbelief. Lots of them include sexual and violent elements which children either don't notice (sexual) or thoroughly enjoy (violent). When Disney gets hold of them, they lose both and become the anodyne Barbie-doll princesses (cue violins-in-the-background) we are used to. In that tradition, the BFG succeeds.

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.

Misogyny: Dahl's misogyny, especially in his adult stories, is quite extreme, and, in shades of Harper Lee and Go Set a Watchman being turned into To Kill a Mockingbird at the publisher's insistence, the first draft of Matilda:

"Painted the protagonist as a devilish little hussy who only later becomes "clever", perhaps because she found herself without very much to do after torturing her parents."Dahl's editor Stephen Roxburgh completely revised Dahl's last novel and, in doing so, turned it into his most popular book."

Anti semitism,: " In a 1983 interview with the New Statesman, he said, “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason. I mean, if you and I were in a line moving towards what we knew were gas chambers, I’d rather have a go at taking one of the guards with me; but they [the Jews] were always submissive.” Buzzfeed

Racism and rudeness. Remember the Oompah-Loompahs? The NAACP objected that in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," the manual labor, performed by characters called Oompa-Loompas, are described by Dahl as African Pygmies, essentially brought-over slaves running the chocolate factory. Look at the original illustrations for the first edition of the book on Bidnessetc In the BFG, one of the giants, the Fleshlumpeater is supposed a black character, certainly another of them likes eating Turkish people.

There is also a discussion on Bignessetc on his general misogyny and unpleasant character leading his publishing company, Knopf, who made a lot of money from him to write,

"You have behaved to us in a way I can honestly say is unmatched in my experience for overbearingness and utter lack of civility."

Dahl used to belong to the only country club in South Wales that allowed Jewish members. My father and grandfather were members in their time. He once objected very loudly to the number of Jews dining there and how it fouled the atmosphere. The management threw him out and banned him. He is supposed to have done something similar at a gambling club in London with the same result!

I think he worked on the principle that everyone male, white and Christian shared his views on women, non-whites and Jews. I get it here, those sort of whites say racist things to me thinking because I am white I will go along with it. My clerks, always black, say they get complaints about whites from other blacks thinking they are bound to sympathise, but they don't. But most of us aren't racist or hate any group of people. Trouble is most people aren't vocal about that in a conversation and are likely to nod and just file it away. We need always to speak out.

Perhaps the best link of all to Roald Dahl is This Recording. He was without doubt a horrible person, but equally without doubt, a tremendously talented writer with an extraordinary imagination. I've enjoyed on some level all of his books and the films made of them.

I'm a huge, huge Roald Dahl fan. I loved him as a kid. My favorite book is a toss-up between The Witches and Matilda.

Liz and I had agreed that we wouldn't read Matilda or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory out loud to the kids, so they would be able to experience it themselves. I would read The Witches, but I'm not sure if all of my kids could handle it yet.

So, it fell to The BFG. All three were in for most of the reading, though Poppy (being 3) left for large swaths. This was the longest book Gwen listened to in its entirety.

Dad: So, what did you think? Hold on - lets go one at a time. Gwen, go ahead and go first.

Gwen: It was good.

Dad: What was good about it? What was your favorite part? Actually, can you just start us off by telling us what the book was about?

Gwen: It was about a girl who lived at an orphanage. Her name was Sophie... and she saw a giant. And the giant got her.

Dad: Eleanor, pick it up from there.

Eleanor: Then, she talked with the giant - and found out that this giant did not eat human beings. He ate snozzcumbers - but there were other giants that DID eat human beings.

Dad: Poppy, what did you think about the book?

Poppy: Uhhh... The... The giant got her.

Eleanor: Wait. Daddy. We already wrote that. Dad.

Poppy: No. I just want to talk about it. (Playing with 3 My Little Ponies at the same time) No! You have to go this way. Neigh! Neigh neigh neigh neigh neigh... Mama! Mommy. Pretty. Mommy'na horsey ride... Ou can have a ride on my back.

Dad: Gwen, did you like the book?

Gwen: Yeah.

Dad: What did you like about it?

Gwen: (Thinking)

Eleanor: Did you like it when Sophie was taken to the BFG's house?

Gwen: I liked the dreams... all of the dreams...

Dad: Poppy, what was your favorite part?

Poppy: Ummmm... UH-OH! I DROPPED MY PONY!!!! Oh, there it is. Now I can talk. I liked the giant got her. *Starts playing with the ponies* Neigh. Neigh. Neigh.

Dad: Anything else?

Poppy: Nope. I liked when the giants fell in the hole. I liked that.

Dad: El?

Eleanor: If I had to choose, I would choose when they  captured all the other giants, and they tricked Fleshlumpeater, and when they had to eat snozzcumbers for the rest of their lives

Dad: How many stars should we give it?

El: 5! 5 5 5 5 5!!!

Gwen: 4. Because it was not really the best book. I liked it, but it wasn't the best book that we listened to. But I DID like it, still.

Poppy: Ummmmmm. Ummmmmmmm... Ummmmmmmmmm. Um. Um. UM!!! I can't say it, I CAN'T SAY IT!!!!!

Dad: Do you know?

Poppy: No.

Dad: Poppy, was the book good?

Poppy: Yeah.

Dad: Did you like it?

Poppy: Yeah.

Dad: Did you really like it?

Poppy: Yeah.

Dad: Was it amazing?

Poppy: Yeah.

Dad: Alright then, we'll say Poppy wants to give it 5 stars. I'll add that I think my favorite part might have been giving the queen the dream. Or giving the Troglehumper to the Fleshlumpeater.

Eleanor: How many stars would YOU give it?

Dad: I don't know. 4 or 5. Either way, I'm glad we liked it.