Chapter Book 7

A.    Author: Roald Dahl

B.     Title: The BFG

C.     Illustrator: Quentin Blake

D.    Readability: 5.8

E.      Genre: Fantasy

F.      Subgenre: Comedy and Humor

G.    Theme: Courage, Honor, Friends   

H.    Primary and secondary characters: Sophie-Orphan  BFG-

I.       Award(s) date of publication:  

J.       Publishing company: Puffin (1998)

K.    ISBN number:978-0141301051

L.     Brief summary: Sophie is an orphan living in a room filled with other children. One night Sophie is awaken by strange noises outside her window, she gets up and attempts to sneak a peak at what was going on outside. Sophie was witnessing a giant thing, outside acting funny. He saw her and snatched her from the window, he took her back to his home, where all the giants lived. Sophie, hides from the giant on the table, he tells her he is hungry and she is frightened he will eat her! But the Giant reveals that he doesn’t want to eat humans, he wants a turkey! He tells her that his name is the BFG, The Big Friendly Giant! He offers her food, so she does not become skinny, but she says it tastes like frog skins and spits the foods out. Sophie asks BFG for carrots and veggies from the garden but the BFG says he never steals, but Sophie says, Yes, you stole me!  The BFG feels remorseful, until Sophie tells him she has no mom or dad and that her life is spent locked in rooms with mice and a horrid women who is mean to all the children. All of a sudden a mean, mean giant enters the scene, and asks who the BFG is talking to, the mean giant searches the room. He convinces the mean giant to try some of the food he had been eating, but that is where Sophie had been hiding, the BFG thinks his new friend is lost. Sophie appears, she was coughed out by the mean giant. She then asks the BFG what he was doing in the city but the BFG won’t tell her. She is given a new dress, and is told to try a drink that bubbles go down instead of up! So the bubbles cause you to wizzpoples not burp. Wizpopers are better than belching in the Giant world. The next day Sophie and the BFG head to the dream country to capture some dreams, but first they must pass through a group of mean, people eating giants. The BFG tells Sophie that he has never shown anyone the stairway to dream country before and he begins the steps. BFG catches a dream and contains it in a jar. The BFG catches a scary dream and he locks it away so no child will ever have to have that scary dream.  The BFG and Sophie race off to the villages and deliver great dreams to boys and girls. While delivering dreams the big mean, giant tries to seek out a human to eat. He chooses a little boy. The BFG cannot stop him, and Sophie wants to save all the children. Sophie tells the BFG to make a dream that tells the humans about the big mean giants that eat people and that will help them believe about the giants who eat humans. They give it to the queen of England, she tells her maid about it, and it is the front page of the paper. The maid finds Sophie on the window sill just as her dream said she would. The BFG waits in the garden, and moves to the window when Sophie calls him. The queen invites the BFG and Sophie to eat dinner with her, she calls the Army and Air Force to meet immediately. The BFG tells the heads how many giants there are and by the dead of night he leads them to Giant Country. As the giants sleep, they tie up all the giants, but one giant was missing. He calls for the BFG, asking Sophie to hide, the BFG goes to stand up to him. The mean giant wants to kill BFG, but Sophie screams and he chases after her. Sophie hides in the BFG’s table, and the giant tries to shake her free, she falls out right in front of him, trying to run she cannot and he catches her. The BFG blows  dream powder in his eye and the giant retreats. Sophie is pulled out for all the rubble. BFG saved the day, all the giants are flown to an underground hold, where they will never get out ever again! The orphanage is closed by the queen, all the girls move to the palace. The BFG is welcomed but he sadly must return to the land of Giants, to continue his dream work. As the BFG gets ready to say goodbye, Sophie confesses to wanting to be with the BFG forever, they take off back to the land of Giants to live.

M.   Description of how you would use the book with students: This book uses creative vocabulary. We could pick out words and discuss the meanings of the words.  Since the BFG catches dreams we can also have a writing activity based on the dreams. This will help sentence structure and writing and spelling.