The BFG by Roald Dahl

From Goodreads,

"Captured by a giant! The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is far too nice and jumbly. It's lucky for Sophie that he is. Had she been carried off in the middle of the night by the Bloodbottler, the Fleshlumpeater, the Bonecruncher, or any of the other giants-rather than the BFG-she would have soon become breakfast. 
When Sophie hears that they are flush-bunking off in England to swollomp a few nice little chiddlers, she decides she must stop them once and for all. And the BFG is going to help her!"

Goodreads - The BFG

Awards:

• Red House Children's Book Award (1983)
• Zilveren Griffel Award (1984)
• West Australian Young Readers' Book Award (WAYRBA) for Young Readers (1985)
• Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for Kinderbuch (1985)
• Books I Loved Best Yearly (BILBY) Award for Read Aloud and Read Alone (1991)

I initially purchased this book because the movie version was going to be released this year.  A couple of the other fourth grade classes read it during our all day read in at the end of year, while my class read Stone Fox.  I finally sat down and decided I needed to read it, and it was definitely worth my time.

The book is about orphan Sophie being snatched out of her bed after she sees a giant outside her window.  The giant happens to be the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) who soon befriends her and explains that he doesn't eat humans like the other giants.  Sophie gets to experience life in giant land and eventually decides that her and the BFG should make a plan to stop the other giants from gobbling up children in England.

This book was an obvious work of Roald Dahl.  It had so many of his infamous words such as "scrumdiddlyumptious", which was used more than once in the book.  I really enjoyed the character of Sophie and her ability to have confidence to face the BFG.  I also really enjoyed that Sophie didn't argue with the BFG about words and their pronunciation, but she accepted his way of speaking and learned the new things with open eyes and ears.  She also taught the BFG some things about living in human land.  She was a wonderful example of a child is willing to listen, learn, and grow.

I really enjoyed the chapter about dreams.  It stated that the BFG had dreams for girls and dreams for boys because they dream entirely different things.  I don't know why, but I've never thought about what a boy dreams about.  I'm sure they don't dream about the same things that a girl dreams about, but the thought never crossed my mind that we dream different.  It was also interesting to see the fearlessness that existed in boys dreams and that girls tended to dream about school related things.  This is an interesting observation because I feel like most boys do dream about more dare-devil things, while girls dream of rainbows and lollipops.  It was just an interesting observation that Dahl made prominent in the book.  Dahl really showed how girls have the role of being proper students and that boys have the role of being fearless and courageous.  I also liked that Sophie was interested in seeing the dreams for boys because obviously they were dreams that she would never really have.

It took me a little bit to really get into this book, because the whole giant theme just didn't interest me.  Once I really sat down and started reading though, I got so interested in the BFG and his mannerisms.  I think this book would be a great read for a classroom.  There were a lot of different parts in the book that would allow for measurement to take place.  They could measure how tall the BFG was, and then measure how they would compare to the BFG.  They could also measure the various things such as the jars or the other giants.  It would be a great book to incorporate math.  Geography could also be incorporated since it the book included so much involving locations such as Panama, New Jersey, Wellington, etc.  The students could also create their own map of giant land.

I enjoyed this book and give it 4 out of 5 stars.  I haven't seen the movie yet, but plan to see it as soon as possible.  I'll try to remember to give an update as soon as I see it!