The BFG by Ronald Dahl is by far one of my favorite children’s chapter books. While looking for a new night time story to read with my daughter I found an old tattered copy of The BFG hidden on our book shelf. By the look of the book, my daughter wasn’t too excited but she was hooked, just like I was as a kid after the first chapter. As a matter of fact we couldn’t stop after the first chapter because she wanted to know what kind of giants are lurking around at the Witching Hour before she went to bed.

In The BFG we meet a young orphan girl named Sophie and an unforgettable giant also known as The Big Friendly Giant (The BFG). One night during the witching hour, when everyone is sound asleep, Sophie finds herself spying something lurking in the shadows. She can’t believe her eyes when she realizes that she is seeing a giant poking into the windows of sleeping children. Quickly she runs back to bed only to be grabbed by an enormous hand. Sophie doesn’t even have time to get a scream out. Next thing she knows she is in a place called Giant Country and is told about the nasty child eating giants that leave giant country each night to eat children by the handful. Sophie insists that they must do something to stop them, but what?

The BFG is not like the other giants at all. In fact he is an outcast. He does not eat children and compared to the other giants, he is the runt. Instead of eating children, he prides himself in being a dream blowing giant. Each evening he goes dream catching looking for phizzwhoppers (the very best dreams to be having) and bottles them up. Then at night after all the nasty giants have left for dinner, he leaves to give pleasant dreams to children all over the world. Sophie loves The BFG and with his dream catching and blowing skills, she comes up with a plan to rid the world of the child eating giants, but first they have to make a special dream for the Queen of England to convince her of what is going on.

Author Ronald Dahl is a family favorite in my home. Now that my daughter is old enough to enjoy more of his books we just finished reading The BFG. Every night she couldn’t get enough and to top it off the copy I read to her was once mine as a child. After her journey to Giant Country and back I see us reading The BFG again sometime very soon.