“Fiddle-de-dee’s not English.”

Okay, so now this is my favourite Chrestomanci book ever. (There is a pattern here. Will I be constantly calling the last Chrestomanci book I read my favourite one ever? ONLY TIME WILL TELL.)

Story is about Conrad, who’s pretty much an ordinary boy, except that he has really bad karma around him, at least according to his uncle. Convinced that this fate of his is related to someone at Stallery mansion, Conrad’s uncle gets him a job interview of sorts as a staff there so Conrad can set things right. Stallery mansion is a magical place — they do things like “pulling the possibilities” at the mansion (though Conrad’s not too sure what that means).

Conrad’s desperate to get the job, so he’s not very pleased to meet a self-assured, older boy with a penchant of dressing well by the name of Christopher on the way there. Both of them end up working at Stallery mansion, and while Conrad finds Christopher’s smugness rather maddening, they are quite good friends, and Conrad’s surprised to learn that Christopher has an ulterior motive to be at the mansion as well.

Conrad’s likeable. He means well, and really tries his best — he’s just unlucky, maybe. (The book is in first person, Conrad’s point of view.) Protagonists tend to be unlucky in DWJ books, though they generally prevail, even though there are times when family members want them dead. It’s a theme, really!

And uh. I admit it. Christopher just fills me with glee. He’s charming, he’s smart, and he’s kinda churlish sometimes (show me a fifteen-year-old who isn’t) and Conrad has every right to be annoyed with Christopher when he is, but I do love him. And he was there looking for Millie, and man, I was delighted when I realised that.

In short, I really enjoyed this book. It can stand on its own — doesn’t matter if you’ve never read any of the Chrestomanci books before, though it probably be nicer if you had some background (re: The Lives of Christopher Chant), just so you know some of the characters better. ♥

I adore Roald Dahl. Matilda is by far still my favourite book by him, but The BFG will never cease to amuse me.

It’s the story of Sophie, a little orphan girl who just happened to be awake at the witching hour. She just happens to see the BFG on the streets of London that night, and the BFG steals her away, taking her to giant land.

BFG? What is that? The Big Friendly Giant, of course! He doesn’t seem all that friendly when he spirits Sophie away, though, and neither is he really big, as Sophie discovers in giant land. The other giants are bigger than him and have names like Childchewer and Fleshlumpeater, and are mean and eat human beans. (Giants don’t go to school so sometimes they use the wrong words. And bad grammar! But they’re excused, because they’re giants. The part where one of them insisted that he was bitten by a “vindshield viper” was particularly hilarious — it sent me snorting with laughter.) The BFG doesn’t eat humans, he eats an awful vegetable called the snozzcumber instead. He also catches dreams and blows them into children’s bedrooms at night, and Sophie decides he’s a gentle soul, after all.

Of course, Sophie can’t just let the other giants go on eating humans. So she hatches up a plan with the BFG and gets the Queen of England to help them get rid of the nasty giants so that everyone can live happily ever after.