The BFG

Sections: Information | Description | Reviews | Awards | Articles | Criticism and Analysis | Fun Stuff | Teacher Ideas | Covers | Penguin Readers, Afrikaans, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Estonian, French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Russian, Scots, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and Welsh Covers

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Information

Information on identifying editions is from Richard Walker’s “Roald Dahl – A Guide to Collecting His First Editions”.

• First editions:
  • Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1982, Great Britain.
    • To identify: Standard practice statement (‘First published’ followed by the date with no later printings listed underneath), with jacket priced £6.50
  • Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1982, USA.
    • To identify: Standard practice statement ( ‘First Edition’ with date or ‘First American Edition’ with date, no later dates or printing statements), with jacket priced $10.95
  • Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1982, USA.
    • To identify: With slip case, not priced, signed by author & illustrator. Limitation page with number out of 300 copies.
• Illustrated by: Quentin Blake
• Connections:
  • In Danny the Champion of the World, Danny’s father tells him a bedtime story about the BFG
• Recent news: 
  • Lego Roald Dahl Characters in UK - September 10, 2017
  • Which Roald Dahl character are you? - September 5, 2017
  • The BFG stars in the World’s Largest Dot-to-Dot - August 7, 2016
  • BFG’s real life inspiration was Roald Dahl’s friend and snooker partner | Daily Mail Online - July 21, 2016
  • BFG Corn Maze (Cambridgeshire, UK) - July 15, 2016
  • More news…

• Related books:
  • Roald Dahl 15 Book Box Set
  • Roald Dahl’s Scrumdiddlyumptious Story Collection
  • Roald Dahl’s Creative Writing with The BFG: How to Write Splendid Settings
  • The BFG Mad Libs
  • The BFG’s Gloriumptious Journal
  • The BFG’s Gloriumptious Sticker Activity Book
  • The BFG, Matilda, and George’s Marvelous Medicine
  • The Big Friendly Doodle Book
  • The Puffin Roald Dahl Collection 3
  • The Roald Dahl Centenary Boxed Set
  • The Roald Dahl Collection
• Movies:
  • The BFG (1989)
  • The BFG (2016)
• Theater:
  • The BFG adapted by David Wood
• Audio Books:
  • De GVR read by Jan Meng
  • Le BGG read by Christine Delaroche and Daniel Prévost
  • Roald Dahl Audio Books read by David Walliams, Stephen Fry, Kate Winslet, Chris O'Dowd, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Peter Serafinowicz, Miranda Richardson, Richard Ayoade, Douglas Hodge
  • Roald Dahl Audio Books (10 CD Collection) read by Simon Callow, Miriam Margolyes, Geoffrey Palmer, James Bolam, Andrew Sachs, June Whitfield, Timothy West, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Martin Jarvis
  • Sophiechen und der Riese read by Peer Augustinski, Jürg Löw, Michael Habeck, Karlheinz Tafel
  • The BFG read by Natasha Richardson
  • The BFG read by Amanda Root and Jeremy Bulloch
  • The BFG read by David Walliams
  • The BFG read by full cast
  • The BFG read by Geoffrey Palmer
  • The BFG read by Samantha Bond
  • The BFG read by Mel Giedroyc
• TV Shows:
  • Jackanory (1965)

• Buy this book:
  

Important note: From 2022 onwards, Puffin has edited selected Dahl books to remove sensitive language and insert new sentences not written by Dahl. If you would prefer to read the original text, ensure you get a copy published before 2022 or one of the “Classic Collection” published by Penguin.

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Description

The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is far too nice and jumbly. It’s lucky for Sophie that he is. Had she been carried off in the middle of the night by the Bloodbottler, or any of the other giants—rather than the BFG—she would have soon become breakfast. When Sophie hears that the giants are flush-bunking off to England to swollomp a few nice little chiddlers, she decides she must stop them once and for all. And the BFG is going to help her!

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Reviews

• “Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake are uncanny…” by Ruth Gordon (New York Times)

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Awards

• Federation of Children’s Book Groups Award (UK 1982)
• Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis (Germany 1984)
• International Board on Books for Young People awards for Norwegian and German translations (1986)
• Good Book Guide “Best Books of the Past 20 Years” (UK 1997)

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Articles

• “Visiting Royal Bedrooms”

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Criticism and Analysis

• Roald Dahl: The Master Of Darkness And Light
  • Written by J. L. Gargett
  • Description: “…The first essay discusses The BFG and Matilda in some detail, asserting that Dahl’s work for children deals in disturbing ideas…”
• “And For a Knife We Shall Use the Great Sword: Uncanny Cutlery and its Absence in the Fiction of Roald Dahl”
  • Essay by J.C. Bernthan published in FEAST
• “Children’s Literature in Translation: Translating Expressive Language in Roald Dahl’s The BFG“ 
  • Thesis by Merel Vosselman

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Fun Stuff

Merchandise

• Elsewhere on the web:
  • Custom binding by artist Erin Fletcher 

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Teacher Ideas

• Quick Student Workbooks
  • Designed to get students thinking critically about the text they read and provide a guided study format to facilitate in improved learning and retention
• The BFG – “If I were a giant…”
  • Creative prompt for writing and drawing
• The BFG – BFG for President!
  • Designed to teach about the election process
• The BFG – BFG Math
  • Designed to teach concepts of scale and multiplication in a hands on way
• The BFG – Creative Commercial Activity
  • Designed to teach creativity and teamwork
• The BFG – Creative Writing Activity
  • Scroll down to find “Recipes for Dreams”
• The BFG – Educators’ Guide
  • PDF guide for educators to using The BFG in the Classroom
• The BFG – Ideas for Classroom Activities
  • Includes ideas for teaching language devices and a fun recipe for Frobscottle!
• The BFG – Ideas for Classroom Activities
  • Includes ideas for studying dreams and depicting giants
• The BFG – Lesson Plans
  • PDF file including extracts, Literacy and PSHE learning objectives, lesson plans and fun activity sheets
• The BFG – Lesson Plans
  • These officially phizz-whizzing lesson plans include PSHE and Literacy Objectives for lessons on Friendship, Dreams and Believing.
• The BFG – Novel Study (Preview)
  • PDF preview of Novel Study including everything you need to teach the novel (full version available for purchase on novelstudies.org)

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Covers

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Penguin Readers Covers

Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. Simplified story texts are combined with beautiful original illustrations for students aged 7 and above.

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Afrikaans Covers – Die Groot Sagmoedige Reu

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Bulgarian Covers – ГДВ

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Catalan Covers – El gran amic gegant

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Croatian Covers – BFG – Blagi Fantastični Gorostas

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Czech Covers – obrDobr

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Dutch Covers – De GVR

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Estonian Covers – Suur Sõbralik Hiiglane

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French Covers – Le Bon Gros Géant

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German Covers – Sophiechen und der Riese

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Greek Covers – Ο ΜΦΓ-Ο ΜΕΓΑΛΟΣ ΦΙΛΙΚΟΣ ΓΙΓΑΝΤΑΣ

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Italian Covers – Il Grande Gigante Gentile

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Korean Covers – 내 친구 꼬마 거인

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Lithuanian Covers – DGM

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Norwegian Covers – Stor Vennlig Kjempe

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Russian Covers – БДВ, или Большой и Добрый Великан

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Scots Covers – The Guid Freendly Giant

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Serbian Covers – VDDŽ

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Slovakian Covers – Kamoš obor

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Slovenian Covers – VDV – Veliki dobrodušni velikan

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Spanish Covers – El Gran Gigante Bonachón

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Swedish Covers – Stora Vänliga Jätten

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Turkish Covers – Koca Sevimli Dev

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Ukrainian Covers – ВДВ, або Великий Дружній Велетень

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Vietnamese Covers – Sophie và tên khổng lồ

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Welsh Covers – Yr Cmm