James and the Giant Peach Paperback – April 26, 2000

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake is a great book if you want to be entertained, or are starting to read chapter books. This book, published in 1961, is one of the most famous books worldwide to this day. It is a fictional-fantasy story and has a child-friendly plot. I would say the book is good for anyone from 8 to 14 years old.James and the Giant Peach is a very descriptive book and makes it easy to imagine the scenes. This story starts off in London, England, in the countryside in James’s aunt’s house. Later on, James meets bugs inside the peach. The peach then ends up in the Atlantic Ocean and arrives in America.James is the protagonist. His friends are giant bugs named Old-Green-Grasshopper, Centipede, Earthworm, Spider, and Ladybug. Although these bugs can be impatient, they cooperate with James and are friendly to him.James is a curious orphan who was trapped with his cruel aunts for many years. One day, his aunts went to their garden and found an enormous peach on one of the trees. The aunts locked him outside of the house for some time as punishment, and that's when he spotted the giant peach. He examined the peach and found a big hole. Big enough for James to fit in it. He stepped into the hole and found the seed of the peach. The seed of the peach opened. James went inside where he met his future friends. Unfortunately, not after long, the peach started rolling, and rolling, and rolling. And that’s how his adventure begins.James and the Giant Peach is filled with descriptive scenes and vivid words like “hurtled” or “plunged” which makes the book fun to read. It is very easy to imagine and feels like you're in the story itself. This novel is similar to other Roald Dahl books such as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Both books are easy to picture and have fun words in them such as “scrumptious”, “delectable”, or “enraptured”. The common theme can be that karma comes around.Even though James was treated poorly by his aunts, he doesn’t become bitter or mean spirited. He still helped out the bugs. This shows that you can help out people and make friends even when it seems like you can’t. The theme of James and the Giant Peach relates to my life when I switched schools in fifth grade. I thought I wouldn’t be able to make friends or have fun. Soon someone did end up making friends with me, and then I had hope about making more friends. In just a little bit of time, I was having a lot of fun during recess and had many friends.

A must for every family library. My child said it's better than the movie. The font and spacing makes it an easy read.

This is one of my favorite Roald Dahl stories. We often forget the source material when we see the movie, but that said, I think James and the Giant Peach is one of the most consistent adaptations from the Dahl catalogue. What you read in the book is of the closest I've seen on film.Adaptations aside, this one gets top marks for being fun, quirky, creative, smile inducing, sweet, and enjoyable. All the characters are fun and interesting, from the mean aunts to the insect menagerie of companions James has by a fortuitous accident. This is not a book that will ever stress you out and quite often makes you chuckle at the sweet and silly things the insects say. It is also a redeeming journey for James, who had always been told he was worthless, in his journey to showing that he is truly a hero. It's a subtle message but an important one for people of all ages, and for me on a personal note: at times you are a hero or worthless depending on the context and the people who are around you. I think that's an extremely valuable life lesson and something anyone can appreciate.Pacing is fun, writing is very Dahl-ish and it's a book I'd happily re-read for myself or read to a classroom given the opportunity.

After James Henry Trotter is orphaned due to the whims of a hungry rhinoceros, he is sent to live with his horrible Aunts Sponge and Spiker and is miserable until a local peach grows to the size of the house and James sets off on a great journey.This short book has delightful characterizations: the nasty aunts are REALLY nasty. The other characters are quirky and fun. Jeremy Irons' reading of the audiobook is exceptional. His delivery of Aunt Sponge (with the face that appears to have been boiled) is absolutely perfect.I especially enjoyed catching glimpses of a couple of Dahl's later stories. When The Giant Peach rolls through one town, it breaks through the wall of a chocolate factory: chocolate fills the street and children frolic in it, "sucking it into their mouths in great greedy gulps," evocative of Augustus Gloop gorging himself in Willy Wonka's chocolate river in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which came out three years after James (1961 and 1964). And at the end of the story, a Chief of Police mistakes one of the characters for "a vermicious Knid"; the Knids return as the principal villains of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator over a decade later (1973).If you're buying this for your kids, note that one character does use the word "ass" a couple of times (using it as an insult for another character), two people get run over by a giant peach (thump! thump!), and the book has two Very Nasty Adults. But not ALL the adults are nasty. And this world has some very nasty adults, so there you have it. Don't be an Aunt Sponge OR an Aunt Spiker.

So amazing! I learned a lot about myself, and the peach. I learned two things. My favorite part was when there were cloud people (spoiler alert). Nothing happened. I skipped about 5 chapters, and I missed a lot I think. I may never truly finish it, but it will always be in my heart.

Great! I liked that the centipede was greedy. I liked the ladybugs. I liked the cloud men.I don’t like peaches. They’re too hairy.

I bought 2 of these books. I belong to a quilting group and I bought enough fat quarters (James and the Peach Tree) to make 2 quilts (60x80 inches). The quilts will go into an auction (sponsored by a parochial school) along with a book and a pillow case.