The BFG

Another Roald Dahl book that I read to my daughter (well, mostly I read it, she read a few chapters to me), about a chapter a night, most nights...

While the previous Roald Dahl books we whipped through pretty quickly, this one seemed to take ages, in fact it was quite overdue at the library when we finally got it back (lucky they don't fine kids isn't it!).

I didn't particularly enjoy reading this one to her, it was the painful mixed up English the BFG uses - and not so much for the concentration required to get the words out, but more the gibberish that I didn't really think was helping my daughters learning the same way that reading correct English does. It was ok to start with, but it forms such a big part of the book it quickly becomes wearisome.

The ludicrousness of the ending with the Queen was probably secondary to the nonsense words, although my daughter seemed to like it enough that every time I suggested we pack in in and give it back to the library she begged to carry on. I suspect she was far more amused hearing the nonsense than I was reading it out.

There is certainly plenty of violence throughout the story, but I don't have an issue with that - there is more violence on a one hour news broadcast than in any two chapters of this book. Children who remain sheltered from all aspects of life don't prosper in the real world. Bit like children not associating meat with animals, or understanding other cultures. There was also some racist parts which were pretty obvious to me, which I was less keen on exposing by daughter to.

Probably 2.5 stars from me, although I will round it up for my daughters benefit!

3 stars.