The BFG

Before you know my name, you might feel me in your hands—a promise of adventure. My pages rustle like secrets in the dark, and when you open me, a world spills out. It’s a world that smells of dusty books and strange vegetables called snozzcumbers, a place that fizzes with a backwards-bubbly drink called frobscottle. I hold a land of giants who stomp through the night, but among them is one who is different. He is tall, with ears as big as wagon wheels, and he doesn’t steal children—he catches dreams. He keeps them in shimmering glass jars, the good ones and the bad ones, and blows the good ones into the bedrooms of sleeping children. He is a giant with a kind heart and a wonderfully muddled way of speaking. He calls good dreams 'phizzwizards' and bad dreams 'trogglehumpers'. I am the story of this giant and the brave little girl who became his friend. I am The BFG.

I came to life in a small brick hut in a garden in England, a place filled with curious objects and the smell of pencil shavings. My creator was a wonderfully clever man named Roald Dahl. He had first imagined my giant years before, in a story he wrote in 1975 called 'Danny, the Champion of the World,' but he knew there was more to tell. Sitting in his special armchair, with a board on his lap, he wrote my words on yellow paper with his favorite pencils. He didn't type; he wrote everything by hand, crafting each sentence with care. He gave my giant a mixed-up, musical language all his own, called Gobblefunk, with words like 'scrumdiddlyumptious' and 'whizzpopping'. But I wasn't complete with just words. An artist named Quentin Blake took his pen and ink and gave my characters life. His scratchy, scribbly, and perfectly wonderful drawings showed the world my giant's kind eyes, his enormous ears, and Sophie's brave spirit. He didn't draw them as perfect figures, but as living, breathing characters full of motion and emotion. On October 14th, 1982, I was finally shared with the world, a finished book dedicated to Roald Dahl's daughter, Olivia, who had passed away twenty years earlier. This makes me a story born not just from imagination, but from a father's deep and lasting love.

When children open my cover, they meet Sophie, an orphan who spies a giant blowing something into a window with a long trumpet. From that moment, they are swept away with her to the strange and sometimes scary Giant Country. They learn about the other giants—the Fleshlumpeater, the Bloodbottler, and the Bonecruncher—who are truly terrible and spend their nights 'gobblefunking' humans. But they also learn about my giant's gentle heart and his lonely existence. Readers get to taste frobscottle, which makes you whizzpop with happiness, and cringe at the thought of a snozzcumber, the only food my giant has to eat. My biggest adventure happens when Sophie and the BFG decide they must stop the other giants from their gruesome nightly feasts. Their plan is so bold, so brave, that it takes them all the way to Buckingham Palace to ask for help from the Queen of England herself. It’s a tense and funny meeting, involving giant-sized breakfasts and a whizzpopping corgi. The story proves that even if you are small, you can have enormous courage and make a very big difference in the world.

For many years since 1982, I have traveled the world. My words have been translated into dozens of languages, so children from Norway to Japan can learn Gobblefunk and cheer for Sophie and her giant friend. I have won awards and found a home in countless libraries and classrooms. I even leaped from the page onto the screen, first as an animated movie in 1989 that brought Quentin Blake's drawings to moving life, and then as a spectacular live-action film in 2016, directed by the famous filmmaker Steven Spielberg. This new version used incredible technology to show the true scale of Giant Country and the magic of Dream Country. I am more than just paper and ink; I am a reminder that friends can be found in the most unexpected places and that being different is a wonderful thing. I am a story that tells you to look closely, to listen carefully, and to believe in the power of a good dream. And just like my giant, I hope to continue catching and sharing wonderful dreams with readers for many, many years to come.