Welcome back to Rate & Review Books with NCBC!
This month, we hear from a Next Chapter Book Club (NCBC) that includes members who have been participating for almost 16 years!
Book or series of books: The BFG
Author: Roald Dahl
Please tell our readers a little about your book club.
“Well, Ashley and Suzanne have been here the longest,” says Carol, club co-facilitator and owner of The Alternative Center, a day program attended by most of the members in this club. Suzanne and Ashley have been participating in this Monday night NCBC since it began in 2008. While membership in the club changed slightly over the years, it changed significantly with COVID.
“We were determined to keep this going,” says Bonnie, co-facilitator and parent of club member Sara. “We really enjoy it,” she says. Bonnie and Sara first participated in a Next Chapter Book Club in the Chicago area. When they moved to Columbus in 2017, they were happy to find out that they could join a book club in the city where NCBC began.
Newer member Jaime shares that she was excited to join the book club. She and David started around the same time, in spring 2023. Until that point, all the members in this club had been women. “Then David fixed that!” says Suzanne, and the group laughs.
This NCBC meets in a bookstore, where Suzanne and her service dog Alfred join the club each week. Suzanne shares with the group what it used to be like to go to public places in her wheelchair. “There were jobs I couldn’t take after high school because I literally couldn’t get into the building,” she says. “Now buildings have to be accessible.” (Learn more about the Americans with Disabilities Act here.)
Front row, left to right: Sara, Carol, Suzanne, Jaime, David, Bonnie, Caroline. Back row: Elizabeth, Ashley. Not pictured: Alfred the service dog.
What is this book about? What happens in this book?
“The BFG [Big Friendly Giant] would blow a trumpet into the boys’ and girls’ rooms at night, and they would have happy dreams,” Elizabeth shares.
One night, after a girl named Sophie sees the BFG, he kidnaps her. “But he would never hurt her,” says David. The BFG takes Sophie so she won’t tell anyone about him.
Unlike the other giants, the BFG is friendly and refuses to eat children. The group begins to laugh about some of the wild and gross names of the other giants. “The Bonecruncher, the Gizzardgulper, the Fleshlumpeater…” Bonnie recalls and shivers with disgust.
Ashley adds, “They creep me out. I can’t.” Ashley and a few others are clearly grossed out by the giants and their eating habits.
How easy was this book to understand?
“Some of the words in this book were hard to understand,” shares Carol. Made-up words like “snozzcumber” and “whizzpopping” made The BFG both a funny and sometimes challenging book for this group of readers.
“We liked how the giants said, ‘human beans’ instead of ‘human beings’,” Bonnie says with a smile. “We could still follow the plot of the story, even with the made-up words.”
What did you like about the book?
Members of the club enjoyed the unlikely friendship between Sophie and the BFG. “As we read, we could see the friendship forming,” says Carol.
“He protected her from the other giants and kept her safe,” Suzanne adds.
Toward the end of The BFG, the Queen of England makes an appearance, and Sara shares that this was her favorite part.
Were there any parts you didn’t like? If so, what were they?
Co-facilitator Caroline says, “We did not like the descriptions of what different people taste like.” To that, everyone strongly agreed.
If another Next Chapter Book Club was thinking about reading this book, what would you tell them?
Club members said that they would suggest other NCBCs read The BFG. Added Carol, “We did laugh a lot.”
Please rate this book on a scale from 1 to 5 stars.
This club gave The BFG 4.1 out of 5 stars.