James and the Giant Peach
Written by Roald Dahl
Illustrated by Quinton Blake
Reviewed by Joshua L. (age 12)
A boy named James goes to live with his aunts, Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge. They were very mean to him and made him do all the chores. One day he was by a bush and some strange man gave him this bag with little green things to eat. He said "Good things will happen if you swallow them." When he was running, he tripped and those little green things scattered. Then a peach was growing on the tree and got bigger and bigger. His aunts got an idea to sell tickets to see the peach. James stayed inside locked in his room. The aunts sent him outside to pick up the garbage. James noticed a hole in the peach and went in it and found huge insects about his size and made friends with them. They decided to leave so the Centipede bit through the stem and they rolled. They ran over Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge and killed them and went straight to the ocean. They were attacked by sharks, so James got an idea. He tied silk to 500 seagulls so they could fly. They ran into cloudmen. The Centipede got them mad so they threw anything they could throw. After they escaped they crossed the Atlantic Ocean and got to New York City. The people thought it was a bomb then they saw James. James introduced them to the Centipede, Earthworm, Silkworm, Glowworm, Ms. Spider, Ladybug, and Grasshopper which made them less scary. James was so happy to see other children he let them eat the peach, and the stone became James' new home. The others got to do what they do best and on weekends James would let any kids visit with him and James' house became a memorial.
It is a very interesting book. I liked how the plans and how the plot is set. My favorite part was when the Centipede and the Earthworm were arguing about how many legs the Centipede has. I liked that because the Earthworm was blind, but he kept saying that he knows everything about the Centipede. This book is the strangest book I've ever read. A dead tree grows a peach that keeps growing until it is bigger than a car. I think the drawings are good but not so good with the eyes black on the picture of James. This book made me wonder what was going to happen next.
I recommend this book because it is adventurous. I think 5th graders and up could read this alone.