James And The Giant Peach

James And The Giant PeachRating: Rated 4.5 stars (226 reviews)
Author: Roald Dahl
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Buy from Amazon.com
Product Description
Roald Dahl was a champion of the underdog and all things little–in this case, an orphaned boy oppressed by two nasty, self-centered aunts. How James escapes his miserable life with the horrible aunts and becomes a hero is a Dahlicious fantasy of the highest order. You will never forget resourceful little James and his new family of magically overgrown insects–a ladybug, a spider, a grasshopper, a glowworm, a silkworm, and the chronic complainer, a centipede with a hundred gorgeous shoes. Their adventures aboard a luscious peach as large as a house take them across the Atlantic Ocean, through waters infested with peach-eating sharks and skies inhabited by malevolent Cloudmen, to a ticker-tape parade in New York City. This happily ever after contemporary fairy tale is a twentieth-century classic that every child deserves to know. And Lane Smith’s endearingly funny illustrations make this hardcover gift edition the one to cherish and pass from one generation to the next. Amazon.com Review
When poor James Henry Trotter loses his parents in a horrible rhinoceros accident, he is forced to live with his two wicked aunts, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. After three years he becomes “the saddest and loneliest boy you could find.” Then one day, a wizened old man in a dark-green suit gives James a bag of magic crystals that promise to reverse his misery forever. When James accidentally spills the crystals on his aunts’ withered peach tree, he sets the adventure in motion. From the old tree a single peach grows, and grows, and grows some more, until finally James climbs inside the giant fruit and rolls away from his despicable aunts to a whole new life. James befriends an assortment of hilarious characters, including Grasshopper, Earthworm, Miss Spider, and Centipede–each with his or her own song to sing. Roald Dahl’s rich imagery and amusing characters ensure that parents will not tire of reading this classic aloud, which they will no doubt be called to do over and over again! With the addition of witty black and white pencil drawings by Lane Smith (of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs fame), upon which the animation for the Disney movie was based, this classic, now in paperback, is bursting with renewed vigor. We’ll just come right out and say it: James and the Giant Peach is one of the finest children’s books ever written. (Ages 9 to 12)

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5 Comments

  1. Mom of Three
    Posted November 30, 1999 at 12:18 am | Permalink

    James And The Giant Peach has been rated 5 stars4/5 year old loves this

    Reading this with me 4 year old and we are having a blast. he really likes the story and gets giddy with excitement over the story.

  2. Kurt Conner
    Posted November 30, 1999 at 4:12 am | Permalink

    James And The Giant Peach has been rated 5 starsEvery child should experience this book

    This is a glorious little tale about the giddiness of being a child. Yes, it is shockingly dark in the beginning, how poor James leads such a miserable existence, but once the peculiar things start to happen, Dahl takes readers on a joyful romp around the world.

    There is one chapter that doesn’t fit the tone at all, in which James basically interviews all of his mutated insect/arachnid/other companions about how valuable they are to humanity, and it comes across feeling like an editorially-mandated After School Special (“Hey kids! Be nice to bugs!”). I like to think that perhaps Dahl was mocking the inability of grown-ups to write for children without trying to bonk them on the heads with a lesson, but it’s not artfully accomplished. The book is much stronger when the tone is cheeky and ludicrous, like when the gigantic Centipede composes enthusiastic limericks about the way an enormous peach squashed some of the villains of the story, or when Dahl rewards readers with the most spectacular role reversal of all for a lonely boy who has been denied the opportunity just to play with other children.

    This book was first read to me in my kindergarten class, and I find that I love it more each time I read it for myself. If you care about children, you will share this book with them.

  3. Anonymous
    Posted November 30, 1999 at 12:01 pm | Permalink

    James And The Giant Peach has been rated 5 starsJames and the Giant Peach

    I think that this is a fantastic book for kids because I love the part when the police yells to the centipede “It’s a DRAGON,WAMPUS,GORGON,SEA-SERPENT,PROCK,MANTICORE,SNOZZWANGER,WHANGDOODLE,…”

    From an 8 year old :-)

  4. M. leidholm
    Posted November 30, 1999 at 6:44 pm | Permalink

    James And The Giant Peach has been rated 3 starslauryn review

    James and the Giant Peach is a good book for young kids and could be good for an adventure person.There are a couple main characters in this book like:James,Lady bug,,Centipede,and Grasshopper.In this book there are a couple adventures like:the peach adventure.James parents die in the begining and James is a young boy who has parents that are to very mean aunts.

  5. Lindsey
    Posted November 30, 1999 at 9:13 pm | Permalink

    James And The Giant Peach has been rated 4 starsAn Exciting Read Aloud

    I read this book aloud to my 3 year old and 2 year old. They loved it! They found James’ adventures so exciting! It was a little scary for them in certain areas, and the story set up took some time. (They kept asking me where the peach was.) I did think the ending was a bit lacking, but the kids did not seem to mind.