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Cover of The BFG by Roald Dahl The BFGRoald Dahl

The BFG

by Roald Dahl

Ages 7–10 Reading age 9 Novel Set in somewhere magical funnyadventurous

Snatched from her bed by a giant who catches dreams, Sophie learns the other giants eat children, and the two of them go to the Queen for help.

A story about children and magical creatures, funny and adventurous in tone. We would put it with children of 7–10, and at a reading age of about 9 for reading alone.

Worth knowing before you buy

None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.

Our take on this book

Sophie is snatched from her bed by a giant, but luckily it is the Big Friendly Giant, who catches good dreams and blows them through windows, and is vegetarian in a country of giants who eat children by the bucketload. Together they cook up a plan involving a nightmare, the Queen of England and the British Army. Roald Dahl's book runs on its language as much as its plot — the BFG's tangled, invented words (snozzcumbers, whizzpopping, human beans) are a joy to read aloud and endlessly quotable. The child-eating giants, Fleshlumpeater and the rest, are genuinely nasty and there are a couple of properly frightening scenes, but the BFG himself is one of the gentlest characters Dahl ever wrote, and the villains get their comeuppance. It suits a seven- to ten-year-old ready for a full novel with real menace held safely inside a very funny frame.

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