James and the Giant Peach

James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

Penguin books - 1961

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Reading Level: 7+  Number of Pages: 136 Genre: Fiction

Massachusetts Children's Award (USA 1982)

Summary: James Trotter currently lives with his two aunts, since the time when he was four that his parents were eaten by an escaped rhinoceros at the zoo. Here James is treated poorly, and is physically and verbally abused, and forced to sleep on the floorboards in the attic. His life changes abruptly one day when a little man appears behind the bushes, and hands him a little sack with some little green things in it. The mysterious man promises him that if he were to drink the contents of the bag mixed with water and hairs from his head he would receive great fortune. As James happily runs back to the house, he accidentally drops the bag and the contents seep into the ground. 

  The peach tree begins to blossom, and a massive peach begins to grow. The peach becomes so massive that James' aunts charge admission and allow people to come see it. At night, James was told to go out and collect trash from all the tourists while his greedy aunts counted their money, and he began to explore the peach, finding a passageway to the inside where he was met by several huge, talking insects, which he quickly befriends. The peach is cut loose, and rolls down the hill, smashing his two aunts flat, and rolls into the ocean. The peach drifts along until sharks begin to attack its bottom, so James makes use of the spider and silkworm and they catch thousands of seagulls to lift the peach into the air.

  The company of insects and James float for a while until, after encountering cloud men, reach Manhattan, where an airplane narrowly misses them, but severs the threads holding the peach to the seagulls. The peach falls and is impaled on the spire of the Empire State Building. The insects are at first believed to be insects or aliens, but are hailed as heroes when James appears. The rest of the insects go on to live very interesting lives. James hollows out the center of the peach, and makes himself a house, in which he works as an author. The book is apparently written by James.

    

"James didn't know where the little man came from. He was just there, thrusting a faintly glowing bag at James. 'Here! You take it! It's yours!' With a promise that the bag of 'little green things' is magic and will free James from life with his horrible, cruel aunts, Sponge and Spiker, the little man is gone––and James is dizzy with joy. But in his excitement James drops the bag, and the magic is lost, sucked into the ground around the old peach tree. Would things never go right for James?

But then he feels it. Something is going to happen. Aunt Spiker spots it first: a peach growing high in their single peach tree. Growing and growing till it's as big as fat Aunt Sponge, and then as big as their house! All greedy Sponge and Spiker can think is that the remarkable peach will make them rich. But James knows. 'Something else, something stranger than ever this time, is about to happen to me again soon.'"

My Impressions: This book is entertaining, and contains poems and songs, as well as an interesting storyline. The characters are beautiful despite their frightening exterior, and are very likable. There is deep sadness, great happiness, intensity, and exultation in the writing.

Parent's Guide:  James and the Giant Peach was Challenged at the Pederson Elementary School in Altoona, Wis. (1991) and at the Morton Elementary School library in Brooksville, Fla. (1992) because the book contains the word "ass" and "promotes" the use of drugs (tobacco, snuff) and whiskey. The book was also removed from classrooms in Stafford County, Va. (1995) and placed in restricted access in the library because the story contains crude language and encourages children to disobey their parents and other adults.

 

Recommendations: This book was one of the first novels I read when I was younger, and I would recommend it strongly to everyone. People identify with the trials of literary characters, and empathize with them when their trials are deep and significant. James' trials are exceptionally horrible, but he manages to find friends and demonstrate heroism.