The BFG by Roald Dahl - Book Review

The Big Friendly Giant AKA BFG written by Roald Dahl is a children’s favorite, selling around a million copies each year globally.

Full of colorful adventures, this delightful story incorporates many themes that come into play in the book.

The book follows the point of view of Sophie, an 8-year-old orphan who meets the BFG, and the adventures that ensue carry the morals of not judging others based on appearance, acceptance, justice, and teamwork, which are only some of the reoccurring themes throughout the book.

Sophie meets the BFG one night while she is lying in bed in the orphanage and witnesses a giant man holding a trumpet. When he discovers that Sophie has seen him, he picks her up and takes her back to his cave to hide her, as he is afraid she will tell other humans of his existence.

From there, a friendship forms between the two of them. Sophie learns that the BFG is different than all his giant ilk, who do in fact eat humans and are generally nasty creatures.

The BFG, even though unpleasant in appearance, is kind at heart with steadfast morals, preferring to give children good dreams by blowing his trumpet and destroying bad dreams.

The book incorporates colorful and imaginative scenes and descriptions of the BFG’s life and how he lives, preferring to eat the snozzcumber plant rather than eating humans, even though they taste horrible.

As the book follows Sophie’s adventure with the BFG through giant land, we meet many horrible giants along the way and see how they interact and bully the BFG because he is different than them and refuses to participate in their horrid ways.

The climax of the story comes when Sophie convinces the BFG to talk to the queen to put an end to the evil giants who are a threat to humans. With a cleverly conceived plan, they go on to face the giants with the help of the Queen's guards and overthrow them, to eliminate their threat to all the world's children.

This engaging story is filled with vivid imagery, colorful descriptions, and a beautiful budding friendship. The themes of justice and teamwork evident throughout the story are powerful and help us learn that facing adversity, being true to yourself, and not judging others by their appearance can make us all better humans.