08
Mar 2008

The BFG by Roald Dahl

By 1 Comment

When I first heard of The BFG, I thought it’s short for some scientific term that I did not know. Was I surprised when I found out that it’s short for The Big Friendly Giant! This is also the third Dahl book that I’ve read and it’s entertaining. The only set-back was the extraordinary words that Dahl created and the BFG’s broken English.

However, I found some interesting words that do not exist, for example, squackling, biffsquiggled, flushbunking, and lots more! After all, it is a story book and it’s supposed to be superbly fun!

Anyway, one night, during the witching hour, Sophie, a bespectacled orphan girl, was ‘kidnapped’ by The BFG. She had seen him and the giant thought he had better bring her back to his home so that she couldn’t tell the whole of England and the whole world that she had seen a giant. The BFG then brought her back to his cave/home in Giant Country.

Sophie and The BFG soon strike an unlikely friendship. The BFG is kind and sympathetic and Sophie likes him. The other 9 giants in that country are horrible and they eat humans. Therefore, The BFG has to hide Sophie in his cave where she’ll be safe. And no, The BFG doesn’t gobble up humans.

Besides that, The BFG has excellent hearing. He can hear things that we can’t normally hear. For example, he can hear a flower scream when it’s being plucked. He can hear a terrible sound a tree makes when it’s being chopped. He can hear the beating of your heart even though you are quite a distance away from him.

The screaming flower and chopping tree parts are also told in The Sound Machine, also written by Roald Dahl. Dahl was probably passionate about preserving the environment and making the world a better place. In The BFG, The BFG is proud of being a giant because he says that giants don’t kill their own kind. So are the animals. Only humans go around killing each other, especially in terrible wars.

The BFG likes to collect dreams, too. The dreams are invisible but he can hear them. He catches the dreams with his net in Dream Country where the dreams float around invisibly. He then keeps his dreams in jars and at night, he blows the dreams into children’s bedrooms where they’re sleeping. The dreams that he gives to the sleeping children are always good and happy dreams.

Anyhow, one day, the human-eating giants decide to visit England to feast on English children. Sophie was horrified and insists that she and The BFG go to England to tell the Queen everything about the nasty giants. The BFG was afraid to go at first but after persuasion from Sophie, he agreed to help her capture the giants with the Queen’s help.

I like the ending of the story. Read it and then you’ll see how Dahl ends his story in a clever way.

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Melange, T

Popularity: 12%

Categories: Authors D, Genre - Children's Classics, Titles B Tags:
08
Nov 2007

The Best Little Girl in the World by Steven Levenkron

By 9 Comments

Fat and Skinny had a race
All around the pillow case
Fat fell down and broke her face
Skinny said, ‘Ha-ha, I won the race.’

The Best Little Girl in the World sounds like a really simple title, doesn’t it? Well, this story is much more than simple actually. My sister recommended this book for me to read. I wondered why she never recommended it earlier!

The ‘little girl’, Francesca Louise Dietrich, a normal teenager who loves ballet and goes for ballet lessons. At the beginning of the story, Francesca has already begun to hate her ‘fat body’. Then, I think her ballet teacher made matters worse by telling her to be slim and firm herself up. But I guess her teacher meant for her to diet in a healthy way.

Anyway, Francesca created a new name for herself: Kessa. In her mind, Kessa is thin and perfect whereas Francesca is fat and ugly. So that’s how her obsession of becoming thin started. She drifted away from her family and friends and also from food altogether.

I was quite annoyed with her mother, Grace and also her father, Harold. Kessa must have become terribly thin already and always made up excuses not to eat her food but her parents did not entirely force her to eat. They let her do anything she wants initially. When she complained about the food, they merely scolded her but didn’t make her eat.

After some time, her father could not take it anymore and stood over her and made her eat up her food. However, they did not know that she would throw up all the food she ate in the toilet. And yet they wonder why she’s still so thin. Finally, Kessa’s pediatrician advised her parents to let Kessa see a psychiatrist, a Dr Smith.

Things did not really go well with Dr Smith and Kessa stopped seeing him. Then, her parents took her to another psychiatrist, Sandy Sherman. Well, at least Sherman sounds better than Smith, Kessa’s father thought. Yeah, he’s better too because he made Kessa trust him and confide in him.

Kessa’s condition did not improve, as she still won’t eat and finally landed in the hospital. I like her roommate, Lila, who’s very straightforward and full of common sense. She tells Kessa it’s silly to NOT want to eat when they have food right in front of them. Then what about poor people who don’t have food? Poor people don’t simply starve themselves to become thinner. It’s logical, isn’t it?

I think this is the first book about anorexia nervosa that I’ve read. So far, I’ve only watched a movie, Hunger Point, which is also about an anorexic girl. The Best Little Girl in the World has been an insightful book but at some parts where Kessa was examining herself and when she was counting the number of ribs she has, I felt sort of uncomfortable for her. If one could count the number of ribs one has, then that person ought to feel extremely hungry! I know I will.

This book has its good and bad sides. The good part is that it’ll give us an idea of how an anorexic thinks. The bad part is it may help people become anorexics, which is just bad, bad, bad. Therefore, I recommend that you only READ it for information but NOT to copy what Kessa did. It sounds logical, isn’t it?

In short, when you are hungry, EAT! Your body will thank you for it.

Popularity: 61%

Categories: Authors L, Genre - YA Fiction, Titles B
20
Apr 2007

Ballet Shoes For Anna by Noel Streatfeild

By 2 Comments

Ballet Shoes For Anna is a tremendously beautiful story for children as well as adults. It is a story of three children who had the misfortune of losing their family and home in an earthquake in Turkey. The children are Francesco, 10, Gussie, 9, and Anna, 8. They led an almost extraordinary life for their parents, Christopher and Olga, lived in a caravan and they traveled frequently.

Their maternal grandfather, whom they affectionately called Jardek, thinks that Anna would make a great ballet dancer one day. He was an amazing dancing teacher himself so he gave Anna ballet lessons to train her.

Fortunately, after the earthquake, Sir William Hoogle, who wanted to offer help to the victims of the disaster, met the children and looked after them until he found a legal guardian for them. Finally, the children were sent to live with their unsociable uncle, Cecil Docksay, and his timid wife, Mabel. The uncle also refused to send Anna for ballet lessons.

Therefore, Francesco and Gussie diligently tried hard to find money so that Anna could be trained to be a dancer. I think that her brothers are very caring and thoughtful because they kept insisting to everybody that Anna must have ballet lessons. But, Anna can be quite silly, as she does not seem to realize the trouble and worries she’d caused to her brothers while they tried to earn money. She is just adamant to get the best teacher and also one she can learn with.

The cover of the book that I have now is not that attractive. To young readers, in my opinion. It was published by Collins. The colours are dull and it only shows Anna with her pink ballet shoes in the background. If the cover had brighter colours, there’s no doubt I would have taken an instant liking to it even if I haven’t read the book yet. That is why you ought to take care never to ever let the book cover fool you! Read the book first, and then only judge.

It is a simple story but a very meaningful one. You get a pleasant feeling while reading it. When Gussie managed to land himself in a tight spot, you’d be eager to find out if all goes well or not. This book had been sitting in my bookshelf for quite a long time and I regretted not reading it sooner. Well, better late than never!

Buy Ballet Shoes for Anna (Lions)

Popularity: 50%

Categories: Authors S, Genre - Children's Classics, Titles B Tags:
19
Apr 2007

Boy by James Hanley

By Leave a Comment

Well, I can say that Boy by Irish writer, James Hanley is quite a riveting book. It’s easy to read and the language is simple. In fact, it only took 10 days for James Hanley to complete the book. That’s rather interesting, isn’t it?

It’s about a young boy, Arthur Fearon, who is approaching his 13th birthday. However, he is absolutely devastated because his parents are going to take him away from school and make him work to earn some money. He has to pass an examination first, and then only can he leave school. He’s a smart kid and he did pass the exam.

His bad-tempered father took him to work at the docks. He managed to be picked on to work in a stinking bilge tank and later in a hot boiler. But, he gave up in the end. The work was just too hard and there were bullies who picked on him on his first day of work. Thus, to escape his father’s wrath and further work at the docks, Arthur hid himself in a ship, the Hernian, which was going to set sail soon.

He thought life was good when he was given a job on the ship. He had high expectations and intended on fulfilling them. Nevertheless, the other sailors did not give him an easy time and a couple of them even tried to take advantage of him. Arthur was upset that they treated him like dirt.

When the ship stopped at Alexandria, another sailor, Donagan, took Arthur to buy some new clothes. After that, he brought the boy to a brothel where he lost his virginity. The experience horrified him but later, he was determined to visit the same place and girl again!

When Boy was published, people thought it was too obscene and vulgar. About a hundred copies of Boy were burnt up, too! Hanley and his family suffered emotionally as well.

It’s definitely an interesting story of a young, poor boy who runs away from home, hoping to find a better life. He had an ambition and that was to be a chemist but his parents would not hear a word of it. This book is unquestionably an eye-opener.

Buy Boy (Oneworld Classics)

Popularity: 37%

Categories: Authors H, Genre - Classics, Titles B
Newer Posts »