Young Adult Literature
This book is, without a doubt, meant for children. The main character is a girl who is treated badly by the adult in charge of her orphanage before discovering a new fantasy world and a happy ending. The other major character, the BFG, though large, has a childlike way of speaking and is tossed around by the other, bigger, giants.
This book is for the underdog, the little guy. The only good adult is the Queen, who is also kind of a larger-than-life, fairy tale type of character. Which is exactly how a monarch should be.
Being for children, The BFG is full of child-friendly humor, from the BFG’s funny language to the, ahem, whizzpoppers. (What kid doesn’t love a fart joke?) But while the language is straightforward, the ideas in the book are not simple. The BFG’s different way of thinking makes Sophie question things she’d previously accepted about her society, big things like war and the morality of killing animals. These are issues adults grapple with just as much as children.
So The BFG doesn’t write down to children. It respects them enough to know that they can grapple with these issues, as long as they’re served with a side of fart jokes.