James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
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Book Reviews of James and the Giant Peach
Book Review: James and the Giant Peach Review
Summary: 5 Stars
James and the Giant Peach Puffin Books, 1988, Pgs. 126, $ 4.99
Roald Dahl ISBN 0-14-037424-8
"And as time went on, he became sadder and sadder, and more and more lonely, and he used to spend hours every day standing at the bottom of the garden, gazing wistfully at the lovely but forbidden world of woods and fields and ocean that spread out below him like a magic carpet."
James and the Giant Peach is about a young boy named James Henry Trotter. It all started when he was four years old, he was a happy child with his parents in a beautiful house by the sea. Until one day, James's parents went to London to shop when all of the sudden a horrible thing happened, a rhinoceros escaped from the London Zoo and ate them both. After that, James had to move in with his horrible aunts, Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge. They treated him like a slave doing to their every need. Once James was planting and a little old man came up to him because he was sick of his aunts and gave him a bag of little green glowing things that looked like worms, the man told James to be very careful with them. After the man left James dropped the bag and they spread in the ground a bunch of animals got them and also one of the glowing worms got into a seed of a peach. The peach grew and grew very fast when James's aunts saw the peach they thought of money and had visitors pay to see the peach. His aunts would not let anybody taste the peach but James tasted and crawled inside the peach. Inside was a bunch of big animals talking to James then, one of the animals gut the stem off the peach and they rolled into the sea running over a bunch of things. There start all of the adventures until they end in New York City when they arrest his aunts and everybody gets to taste the peach. Over all I really enjoyed the book because it kept me interested and never bored me. For example I really liked the way James's character was written on the part where he meets all the creatures. The author kept me very interested by his description in the book it was just the right amount to where I could imagine everything that was in the book. This book's genre was fantasy. The age group that would enjoy and understand the book is 9 and above.
Veronica Molina, Grade 6
Book Review: A Fun, Heartwarming Adventure
Summary: 5 Stars
James and the Giant Peach is the story of Henry James Trotter a seven-year-old boy who escapes from the oppressive home of two cruel and abusive aunts on a fantastically large peach. Onboard the giant peach, James befriends a ladybug, caterpillar, grasshopper, spider, earthworm, glowworm and silkworm, all of whom have been transformed to human size when James drops a bag of magic "green things" near the base of an old peach tree at Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker's home.
The rice-sized green things were given to James by a strange old man who appears mysteriously and warns him that he must not let the green things escape because "Whoever they meet first, be it bug, insect, animal, or tree that will be the one who gets the full power of their magic!"
The adventure really gets moving when James wakes the next morning to find a giant peach growing from the old tree. It doesn't stop growing until it's as large as a house. His mean aunts want to use the giant peach for profit by selling tickets, but James and his insect friends decide to break away from the tree and set out on their own.
In doing so, they flatten Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker who get in the way, and then the peach rolls off of a cliff and lands in the ocean.
Once at sea, James and his friends encounter sharks, a flock of seagulls (which they manage to tie to the peach stem), wicked Cloud-Men who hurl hailstones at them, before finally coming to New York and getting stuck atop the pointy spire of the Empire State Building.
James convinces all of the onlookers in New York City that they are friendly, and the people of New York give him and the insects a hero's welcome and a ticker-tape parade. During the parade, children begin eating the peach, until all that's left is the peach stone at the core of the fruit.
It is in this giant peach stone that James ultimately makes his home, and the story ends happily ever after.
James and the Giant Peach is a wonderful story ideal for readers age 9-12. With new illustrations by Lane Smith, James' heartwarming adventure has been born anew. I highly recommend this book! And, of course, I hope this review is helpful to you.
Stacey
Book Review: Always a Pleasure!
Summary: 5 Stars
We do seem to love the story of a child whose life is so miserable that it begs for a magical rescue and an exciting, dangerous and hair raising adventure. In James and the Giant Peach we meet one James Henry Trotter, one of these very same children who like his predecessors and successors (Harry Potter, Cinderella, Those Lemony Snickett Children, Hansel & Gretel, ect...) is leading a desperate and miserable life with is two wicked aunts...his parents were eaten by a wild, rampaging rhinoceros (naturally). On one particularly bad day, Henry hides behind some bushes and meets a strange old man who gives him some magic crystals (green glowing pellet things), which he is supposed to drink (mixed with water and ten of his own hairs), but of course he promptly trips and spills them on the ground under an ancient and withered peach tree.
James is crushed when the crystals wiggle into the ground and are lost forever (or so he thinks)...but as with all magic, that's not the end of the story....it is merely the beginning. Shortly thereafter, the tree grows the most enormous peach ever and the aunts are in the green, selling admission to the general public...but that money and fame doesn't make them any nicer and James winds up locked outside, where he discovers a hidden tunnel to the center of the peach! Luckily for him the crystals have made quite the team for him to embark on an adventure with...the cantankerous Worm, the pest of a centipede, the wonderful Ms. Spider, the loveable lady bug, a glow worm, a silk worm, and an old grasshopper! In short order, the free the giant peach from its branch, roll over the aunts and are on the way to a whole big adventure!
Dahl is always a treat, and his books stand up to the test of time...kids always seem to love a good evil guardian gets what they deserve while the miserable child gets to shine for the good hearted, hero he is and have a grand adventure too! You'll have to read the book if you want to find out what happens to James and his gang once the peach gets rolling...you know you want to! James and the Giant Peach is still a strange and twisted tale that is fun for children of all ages! We highly recommend it!
Book Review: A review of James And The Giant Peach (Alice Z)
Summary: 5 Stars
During early December, I read a very interesting book named "James and the Giant Peach" that I would like to recommend. It is about a boy's life from ages 4~8. His parents were nice to him and they lived along the seashore peacefully with lots of other children, but then something terrible happened. During a bright, sunny day, while his parents were going shopping, an angry rhinoceros escaped from the London Zoo and ate them up alive. Poor James was forced to live with his nasty aunts doing all the dirty work while they were relaxing. One day, James met a stranger who gave him magic crocodile tounges. But Oops! James dropped it near the peach tree and a peach started to grow. While James was picking up garbage near the enormus peach the next night, he spotted a hole in the peach. What was that hole? Read this book to find out.I really enjoyed this book because it is kind of a fantasy and adventure story. It really takes you inside with all the exaggeration. For example, there are really exciting things like the cloudmen, the sharks, landing on the Empire State Building and living in a pit. I'd like to recommend this book to any fantasy or adventure lover.
My favorite part was when Aunt Spiker & Aunt Sponge got flattened like pancakes when the paech rolled on them because they were so mean to James and so this is like a lesson to them and poor James' revenge. My least favorite part was when James had to help centipede take off all 42 shoes tied in really tangled knots for 2 hours until he could sleep. <P.....After you have read the book "James and The Giant Peach" I would recommend you to read some of the other books Roald Dahl wrote. What I like about Roald's Dahl books is that he writes about children saving the day or being the best in an adventure that is realistic. For example, in "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory", Charlie was the only one not to fool around during the tour.
How did the peach grow so big? How did James and the creatures make friends and communicate? How did the peach roll over the nasty aunts and not die? What was it like to live inside a peach? Read this fabulous story and find out.
Book Review: My favorite book from childhood.
Summary: 5 Stars
I first read "James and the Giant Peach" when I was 9 years old (I am 14 now), and reread it so many times that I actually know the story by heart! This book is funny, exciting and makes me use my imagination.
The story: After his parents are eaten by a rhinoceros (I would've made a tiger eat them instead, since in real life rhinos don't eat meat!), young James Henry Trotter has to go live with his two mean aunts named Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, who treat him very very badly. Poor James has to live with his aunts for three whole years until one day a mysterious man gives him a bag of magic things. (He tells him they are crocodile tongues.) James is so excited that he starts running back to the house, but when he is underneath an old peach tree in the garden he accidentally slips and spills all the tiny little things and they dig themselves into the roots of the tree.
Suddenly a peach appears on the very tip of the tree and then starts to grow and grow and doesn't stop until it is as big as a house! The aunts are so excited about this that instead of immediately eating pieces off the peach they start charging people to see the peach. After everyone has left they force James to pick up all the litter that the people left behind. Poor James is left all alone in the dark! For no particular reason, James walks up to the peach and starts touching it. He notices that there is a rather large hole in the peach. He crawls in, and the hole becomes a tunnel. He keeps on crawling until he reaches the center of the peach. He meets seven oversized insects who turn out to have swallowed some of the tiny little things that James had spilled. When the stem snips off (with some help, of course), the peach rolls off and the eight travellers embark on the adventure of a lifetime!
Roald Dahl was my favorite childhood author; I have read most of his children's books, and this is my personal favorite.
I recommend this book to anyone between the ages of 7 and 12.