I just spent 14.5 hours in a car with a six year old. Insane,
right? Actually it went much better than I anticipated because I bought The BFG
by Roald Dahl to read while we drove. It was amazing! The book kept his
attention the entire trip. My daughter and I took turns driving and reading.
When we put it down to rest our voices he couldn’t wait for us to start reading
again!
Great Grand has been visiting me for two weeks and it’s been a whorl wind of activities. The last few days he was here my daughter (his grandmom) wanted to take him to a beach because he mentioned he’s never been. I’ve always enjoyed taking impromptu road trips so when the opportunity came up to take a fast trip to Galveston I went for it. Though it sounds quick I should mention it was an 8.5 hour trip one way from my house plus 6 hours return trip to the rendezvous point where we met to return him to his mom. That is a long time in a car with a six year old.
Fortunately I saw The BFG book and because I’d also seen the movie trailers for the soon to be released movie I decided to try reading it out loud to keep the boy entertained and was hoping he’d not be constantly asking “how much longer till we get there?” It totally worked. The Big Friendly Giant is an adorable book about an orphan girl named Sophie who was awake late one night looking out her window when she saw something. Something BIG. The Big something was a giant who snatched her out of her bed and carried her away to his giant country.
Neither trusts the other at first but soon build a strong friendship in which they make a plan to save all the other children from other children eating giants. That sounds a little fearsome, and I admit I skipped about three pages that described how the bad giants snatched the children for eating. I was a bit worried about nightmares for the six year old. He never realized I skipped that part because the rest of the story was so intriguing. The book includes lots of cartoonish drawings through out that made him giggle. We especially enjoyed the end of the book.
It was rather sweet when Great Grand looked back through the book after we finished, laid he head against a pillow in the car and fell asleep clutching the book to his chest.
The book is written for children with pretty good reading skills. The giants have their own language of made up description words. I doubt Great Grand will ever eat a cucumber because of the giants description of his food source – snozcucumbers. My adult daughter and I plan to see the movie when it is released next week because it is suppose to be pretty true to the book. Great Grand got very excited when we saw the trailer on TV at the hotel. I expect he’ll be asking his mom to see the movie also.
There are several editions available in Amazon, you might enjoy this audio version as well!
I give it a 5 star rating because of its charm and unique story line. It is a fairy tail so the story is not at all believable, just nice. Spoiler – Great Grand deduced that the end couldn’t be real, because… Giants aren’t real. [smiling at the thought]
Post Script: I saw the movie with my daughter a few days after it was released. IT IS FANTASTIC. There are notable differences between the film and the book, but all were for the better. The nightmarish descriptions that I skipped when reading aloud to the grand were also skipped in the movie. The ending was better and a few smaller details were moved around or enhanced. I totally recommend it and plan to purchase a copy for our video library.
