Last week we started reading the BFG. Today we finished reading Chapter 6 and we have been introduced to the Big Friendly Giant. The BFG says a lot of funny words that we have never heard before. We had to do a lot of decoding and inferring to figure out what the BFG was trying to say. Here are some of the funny words he used and what we think they mean based on the clues from the text, and our own ideas:
CHAPTER 6 – THE GIANT
1. “‘You is trying to change the subject,’ the Giant said sternly. ‘We is having a nice babblement about the taste of the human bean. The human bean is not a vegetable.’
‘Oh but the bean is a vegetable,’ said Sophie.
‘Not the human bean,’ the Giant said. ‘The human bean has two legs, and a vegetable has no legs at all.'” (p. 28)
*We think the word babblement means talking because:
– the word ending “ment” reminded Josiah of an argu”ment”
– the word babble means talking; babies and toddlers babble
– we know they are talking because we read “the Giant said” and we see quotation marks so we know characters are talking
*We think the “human bean” means human being because:
– it’s starts with human and bean sounds like “being” – it makes sense and sounds right
– a human being has 2 legs and a bean doesn’t have any legs
Do you agree with our inferences?
Leigh Cassell Consulting 