is The BFG by Roald Dahl worth reading

If you have any fondness for inventive children's fiction, yes — the review describes it as 'as close to a modern classic as children's literature gets,' backed by sales of more than 37 million copies and a cultural footprint that includes Royal Mail postage stamps. The BFG's invented Gobblefunk dialect and the gleefully absurd logic of Giant Country (people from Greece taste too greasy; people from Panama taste like hats) give it a flavour unlike almost anything else in children's literature. The one honest caveat is that the ending — military helicopters roping sleeping giants into a pit — has been called 'higgledy-piggledy' and somewhat loose compared to the tightly wound menace of the opening chapters.

What is this book actually about

It follows Sophie, a small, nearsighted orphan girl who is snatched from her orphanage window by a giant — who turns out to be the Big Friendly Giant, a gentle outcast who refuses to eat humans unlike his nine far larger and more violent neighbours. To stop those nine man-eating giants, Sophie and the BFG ultimately devise a plan that enlists the Queen of England herself, and the BFG eventually earns the official title of Royal Dream-Blower. Beneath the absurd comedy, the review highlights a genuine theme of acceptance: Sophie never mocks the BFG for his scrambled, self-taught speech, modelling inclusion rather than othering.

Does this book have a good ending

The resolution is the novel's most debated element — a Kirkus-adjacent assessment describes the climax, in which military helicopters rope the sleeping giants on the BFG's direction, as told in Dahl's 'higgledy-piggledy home-made manner, which is rarely disarming here despite the pandering.' Readers who love the eerie, menacing atmosphere of the opening chapters may find it convenient and a little rushed. That said, the BFG earning a settled place in the world as Royal Dream-Blower provides genuine emotional payoff, especially given how much of the story is about the giant being an outcast.

What age is this book appropriate for

Best for ages 7 and up — the text length, Gobblefunk invented language, and reading complexity suit confident early readers rather than very young children. The kidnapping premise (Sophie is grabbed through her orphanage window in the night) and the nine man-eating giants who hunt humans based on flavour are calibrated for that age range and aren't intended for younger children. The review notes it is designed for roughly ages seven to ten, though its combination of genuine threat and absurd comedy gives it appeal well beyond that window.

Is this book similar to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Yes, closely — the review explicitly says readers who have loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or James and the Giant Peach will find The BFG 'operating in the same imaginative register.' All three books share Dahl's hallmark of gleefully gross absurdist logic applied with rigorous internal consistency, a resourceful child at the centre, and illustrations by Quentin Blake. If you haven't read Dahl before, the review also calls The BFG 'a strong entry point into his world.'

Is there a censored version of this book and does it matter which edition i buy

This is worth checking before you buy — in February 2023, Puffin Books announced language revisions across several of Dahl's children's titles, which generated significant public controversy given Dahl's explicit instruction that publishers should not alter his work. Different printings may reflect different editorial choices, so readers and parents with strong feelings about textual integrity should confirm which edition they are purchasing. The review flags this as an ongoing publishing debate rather than a settled matter.

BOOKS

Roald Dahl

About This Author

Published

February 20, 2026

Read Time

9 min read

Reader rating

4.7

· 13,383 Amazon ratings

reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score

$6.74 on Amazon

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The BFG by Roald Dahl Review: A Giant Classic for Young Readers

Originally published in 1982, Roald Dahl's The BFG remains one of children's literature's most enduring novels, built on an unlikely friendship between a small orphaned girl and a gentle giant, and backed by sales of more than 37 million copies worldwide as of 2009.

LuvemBooks Verdict

Best for

Children aged roughly seven to ten — and the adults reading aloud to them — who delight in invented language, absurdist logic, and a central friendship between a brave small girl and a gentle giant outcast.

Worth it if

The reader (or the child in question) is drawn to imaginative world-building, gleefully gross humour, and the kind of invented dialect — Dahl's "Gobblefunk" — that makes language itself part of the fun; it also works as a strong first entry point into Dahl's wider body of work.

Skip if

Readers who found the opening chapters thrillingly menacing may be disappointed by a final act that critics have described as loose and convenient — and anyone with strong feelings about textual integrity should carefully verify which edition they are buying, given the 2023 Puffin Books editorial revisions.

What readers & critics say

Kirkus Reviews found the novel's opening irresistibly shivery but judged the BFG's mixed-up speech "simply tiresome" and the resolution told in a "higgledy-piggledy home-made manner," suggesting the book's execution does not always match its premise's promise. Wikipedia's reception entry notes broader cultural validation: the novel ranked 56th in the BBC's "Big Read" public survey and 88th in School critical coverage's all-time best children's novels list, with over 37 million copies sold as of 2009.

“Dahl's elemental fix on kids' consciousness gets this off to a surefire shivery start.”

— Kirkus Reviews

Sources: Kirkus Reviews, Wikipedia

4.7from 13,383 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score

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Age & Reading Level

Recommended age

Ages 8–12

Reading level

Middle grade

Browse all 8–12 books

2 content notes · who it suits

Content to know about

mild kidnapping peril

descriptions of giants eating humans (played for dark comedy)

Best for: Ages 7+ — text length, invented language, and reading complexity suit confident early readers; the kidnapping premise and man-eating giants are calibrated for this age range rather than younger children.

Skip if you want a neatly plotted story with a tightly resolved ending — the novel's final act is broadly considered its weakest.

Trending Now

Cultural Resurgence

The BFG by Roald Dahl is Trending

The BFG Is Back in the Conversation — Here's Why Readers Are Picking It Up Again

The BFG has been getting fresh attention lately, with both the 1989 animated film and the 2016 Disney live-action adaptation back in the spotlight. It's a good reminder of just how much staying power Roald Dahl's beloved giant has.

The BFG is popping up in reader conversations again, and a lot of it traces back to renewed interest in its screen adaptations. The 1989 animated TV film — a charming British production starring David Jason — has been getting a second look, alongside the bigger-budget 2016 Disney film directed by Steven Spielberg with Mark Rylance as the BFG. When both versions of a story start circulating at the same time, people naturally go back to the source.

For a book that's sold over 37 million copies worldwide, The BFG doesn't really need a reason to be relevant — but having its adaptations back in the cultural conversation gives new readers a natural entry point and gives longtime fans an excuse to revisit it. Roald Dahl's story of Sophie and her gentle giant has always had broad appeal, landing just as well with adults reading aloud as with kids reading on their own.

If you've never read it, now's as good a time as any. And if it's been a while, this is your nudge.

Updated Sep 9, 2026

In This Review

What Works & What Doesn't
What the Story Is and How It Works
Place in the Genre and Its Cultural Footprint
What Dahl Does Distinctively Well
Genuine Limitations Worth Noting
Who This Book Is For

What Works & What Doesn't

What Works

A genuinely inventive premise built on a specific, memorable central friendship between Sophie and the BFG
The BFG's invented 'Gobblefunk' dialect is a distinctive creative achievement that young readers consistently respond to
Extraordinary cultural staying power — over 37 million copies sold, BBC Big Read recognition, and Royal Mail commemorative stamps
Illustrated by Quentin Blake, whose long creative partnership with Dahl is itself part of the novel's legacy
Works as both a read-aloud and an independent read for its target age range of roughly seven to ten

What Doesn't

Some critics find the novel's final act — the military helicopter rescue orchestrated by the BFG — anticlimactic relative to the menacing energy of its opening
The ongoing editorial revisions to Dahl's texts by Puffin Books mean that buyers seeking the original, unaltered text should verify which edition they are purchasing

A children's novel that has sold more than 37 million copies and spawned a Steven Spielberg film, The BFG is as close to a modern classic as children's literature gets.

What the Story Is and How It Works

The BFG opens at the witching hour, with Sophie — a small, imaginative, nearsighted girl living in an orphanage — unable to sleep. Peering out her window, she spots a towering figure in the street carrying a suitcase and a trumpet. The giant sees her looking, reaches through the window, and carries her off to Giant Country: a desolate land populated by ten giants in all. Sophie braces to be eaten, but the giant who took her is the Big Friendly Giant — the BFG — and eating humans is precisely what he refuses to do. He abducted Sophie solely to prevent her from telling anyone she had seen a real giant, which, he explains, would result in his capture and display in a zoo. The central situation, then, is a mismatched alliance: a tiny orphan and a gentle outcast giant, surrounded by nine far larger and more violent neighbours who roam the earth each night consuming human beings. The novel traces how Sophie and the BFG devise a plan to stop those nine giants — ultimately enlisting the Queen of England herself — and how the BFG earns the official title of Royal Dream-Blower and finds a settled place in the world.

“higgledy-piggledy home-made manner, which is rarely disarming here despite the pandering”

Place in the Genre and Its Cultural Footprint

Originally published in 1982, The BFG grew out of a short story Dahl had embedded in his novel Danny, the Champion of the World, and it represents one of the most successful expansions in his body of work. According to Wikipedia's reception summary, the novel was listed at number 56 in the BBC's "Big Read" survey of the British public, and in 2012 School Library Journal ranked it number 88 among all-time best children's novels. That same year, the BFG and Sophie were commemorated on Royal Mail postage stamps — a mark of cultural penetration that few fictional characters achieve. More than one million copies sell worldwide each year, a figure that places it in genuinely rare company for a four-decade-old children's title. A 1989 animated adaptation, a stage version, and Steven Spielberg's Disney live-action film have each extended its reach to successive generations.

What Dahl Does Distinctively Well

The novel's greatest creative asset is the BFG's voice. Dahl constructs an entire idiosyncratic dialect for the giant — "Gobblefunk," as it has come to be known — a speech full of invented words, scrambled idioms, and cheerful malapropisms that is as much a character trait as anything the BFG does in the plot. A blog discussion hosted by Ohio State University noted that the BFG's distinctive speech, which stems from never having been formally taught, functions as a vehicle for one of the book's central ideas: Sophie neither mocks nor dismisses the giant for how he speaks but instead works alongside him, modelling acceptance rather than othering. Dahl also populates Giant Country with the kind of gleefully gross logic that his young readers have always responded to — the giants adjust their nightly human-hunting routes partly on the basis of flavour, so people from Greece taste too greasy and people from Panama taste like hats. This inventive absurdity, applied with rigorous internal consistency, is a hallmark of Dahl's method and is on full display here.

Genuine Limitations Worth Noting

Not every element of the novel lands with equal force. A Kirkus-adjacent assessment preserved in the verified sources describes the book's conclusion — in which military helicopters rope the sleeping giants and haul them to a pit on the BFG's direction — as told in Dahl's "higgledy-piggledy home-made manner, which is rarely disarming here despite the pandering," suggesting that readers who come for the tightly wound menace of the opening chapters may find the resolution somewhat loose and convenient. The novel is also at the centre of an ongoing publishing debate: in February 2023, Puffin Books announced revisions to language across several of Dahl's children's titles, a decision that generated significant public controversy given Dahl's explicit instruction that publishers should not alter his work. Readers and parents with strong feelings about textual integrity should note which edition they are purchasing, as different printings may reflect different editorial choices.

Who This Book Is For

Dahl dedicated The BFG to his eldest daughter Olivia, who died of measles encephalitis at the age of seven in 1962 — a dedication that gives the novel a quiet emotional gravity its young audience need not fully understand to feel. The book is designed for readers roughly between the ages of seven and ten, and its combination of genuine threat, absurd comedy, invented language, and a child protagonist who is consistently smarter and braver than the adults around her makes it well suited to that audience. Quentin Blake, whose decades-long collaboration with Dahl is itself a piece of children's publishing history, provides the illustrations. Readers who have already loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or James and the Giant Peach will find The BFG operating in the same imaginative register — and those encountering Dahl for the first time will find it a strong entry point into his world.

Sources & Further Reading

The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.

Cited in this review
1
The BFG by Roald Dahl–Summary and Analysis | Audible.com
audible.com
Further reading
2
Roald Dahl — author profile
Roald Dahl, Wikipedia
3
The BFG - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
4
Text Review of “The BFG” by Roald Dahl | Comparative Studies 1100: Introduction to the Humanities, Spring 2020
u.osu.edu
5
THE BFG | Kirkus Reviews
kirkusreviews.com
6
The BFG by Roald Dahl (Paperback) | Scholastic Book Clubs
clubs.scholastic.com
7
The BFG by Roald Dahl | Scholastic Education
shop.scholastic.com
8
The BFG Summary & Analysis | Homework Help
americanliterature.com
9
The BFG by Roald Dahl book review - Fantasy Book Review
fantasybookreview.co.uk
10
[The BFG]: A Review – greenish bookshelf
greenishbookshelf.com
11
A Book Review on "The BFG" by Roald Dahl
sisandchrys.com
12
The BFG by Roald Dahl Book Reviews - YA Books Central
yabookscentral.com
13
BOOK REVIEW: The BFG by Roald Dahl | Tiger Riding for Beginners
berniegourley.com
14
The BFG by Roald Dahl | Summary, Characters & Themes - Lesson | Study.com
study.com
15
The BFG by Roald Dahl: 9780679428138 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
penguinrandomhouse.com

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The BFG by Roald Dahl Review: A Giant Classic for Young Readers

LuvemBooks Verdict

Age & Reading Level

The BFG by Roald Dahl is Trending

The BFG Is Back in the Conversation — Here's Why Readers Are Picking It Up Again

In This Review

What Works & What Doesn't

What Works

What Doesn't

What the Story Is and How It Works

Place in the Genre and Its Cultural Footprint

What Dahl Does Distinctively Well

Genuine Limitations Worth Noting

Who This Book Is For

Reader Comments

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