By: Roald Dahl Publisher: Disney Press Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Disney Press Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 44 Publication Date: 1996-04 Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Product Description: Based on Disney's motion picture of the same name, this stunningly illustrated edition of Dahl's James and the Giant Peach tells the story of perilous adventure and whimsical fantasy. James Henry Trotter dreams of visiting the top of the Empire State Building. James finally gets his wish when he boards a humongous peach and rides the ocean waves toward the Big Apple. Full color.
Amazon.com Review: Roald Dahl's classic children's novel is now a motion picture from The Walt Disney Company, and this version of James and the Giant Peach grew out of the making of the movie. Lane Smith, conceptual artist for the film, has given James and company a new and arresting look, much in the style of his many highly regarded books, such as Math Curse and The Stinky Cheeseman. Karey Kirkpatrick, the film's screenwriter, created a text that is true to the spirit of Dahl's original, and deftly pulls young readers into the remarkable story. All in all, it's a peach of a book sure to be the pick of every child's bookshelf!
Way Better than the Movie I loved Roald Dahl when I was a kid so I've been waiting eagerly for my son to become old enough to be interested in books with chapters. We just finished James and the Giant Peach and he loved it. We read the Witches also by Roald Dahl first and I think that was a good choice for us. Now it's on to the BFG. :)
Great Fantasy James and the Giant Peach
Have you ever wonder what it's like if your parents had died? Or if you had to live with aunts who don't take care of you and they make you their slave? If you do then you'll know how James feels about all of this.
The book "James and the Giant Peach" is a fiction book but both of your parents might die and your aunt might treat you bad like James (written by Quentin).
His troubles are terrible when is parents died they left his aunts to take care of him he had the worst day ever that day ever but that ha all changed when this guy gave him something magical and they all went on the peach tree and had a giant peach they (not James) got money James had to clean up went in the peach floated in the ocean floated in air went to America were he had dream to and was once again happy.
I would recommend "James and the Giant Peach" because it shows how life is difficult but it doesn't come out as bad as you thought it was.
A childhood flashback I was fortunate to have a 3rd grade teacher who loved to read to the class after recess.
This was one of the books and definitely an easy read.. but still enjoyable to join James in his adventures and not think about how this "can't" be real.
Great read for adults.. and for adults to read to kids or follow along.
James and the Giant Peach By Roald Dahl James and the Giant Peach is a wonderful and enchanting story written by Roald Dahl, one of my favorite authors. This story begins with a little boy named James. At first, he lived happily with his parents in a beautiful house near the sea shore, but one day a tragedy happened to his parents. While his parents were shopping at the city of London, an angry rhinoceros escaped from the London Zoo and ate many people including James's parents.
James felt like it was going to be the end of the world when he heard that he had to live with his two aunts, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spike. If I had to describe them, I would have to rather say that they are very disgraceful, ugly, and definitely cruel. James was a slave to his aunts. He was forced to chop logs of wood, and if he was too slow, his aunts would furiously yell at him.
Poor James, he decided to run away and started to cry an ocean full of tear drops. But at that moment, he saw an old man with a crazy green suit emerging out of the bushes behind him. The old man asked James to come closer, and said that he had a wonderful surprise for him. The old man put his hand into his pocket and grabbed a small package that made funny noises. James was frightened and asked him what was in the package.
The old man said proudly, "Inside this package, there are Crocodile tongues boiled in the skull of a dead witch for twenty days and nights with a eyeball of a lizard, the fingers of a young monkey, the gizzard of a pig, the beak of a green parrot, and the juice of a porcupine, and three spoonfuls of sugar." Then the old man gave the package to James gently and told him that now it was his.
Along with the package, the old man gave James specific instructions. James must get a large jug of water and poor the package into the jug and wait until it rapidly beings to bubble to drink it. The old man told James to do as he said and he would have a beautiful glorious life.
James rushed with his package, but suddenly he dropped the package and the crystals fell out from the package. "Oh, no!" he shouted. He dropped the crystals near his old peach tree and he saw them mysteriously drop into the soil. He tried to dig them out but it was already too late. He just lost his chance to have a great life, and now he thought that he was going to have a miserable life.
The next day, James noticed strange things starting to happen. The peach at the top of the tree began to grow while he was chopping the wood. It was way bigger than a regular sized peach. Days passed by and the peach grew more massive every single day, and before long it was as big as a house!
As James explored the peach, he discovered a secret entranceway into the fruit, and when he crawled inside, he met a bunch of oversized friends. Their names were Centipede, Earthworm, Grasshopper, Glow-worm, Miss Spider, Ladybug, and Silkworm.
The peach became too heavy for the tree and the stem of the peach ripped off and the peach started rolling, and it crushed everything that was in its way. Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spike were crushed by the rolling peach too. They were as flat as a paper doll. The Giant Peach was on the roll and fell off a cliff into the ocean.
The insects and James journeyed through many adventures with the Giant Peach. When some sharks were attacking the peach, James quickly tied the silk from the silkworm to the seagulls that were flying near by so that the Giant Peach could fly. As the Giant Peach flew into the sky, the Giant Peach met the Cloud-man who makes clouds and rainbows. However, the Cloud-man started to make hail, snow, and rain, and it started to scrape the peach. An angry Cloud-man aimed for a seagull on the string of silk, but Centipede quickly bit the string off and the seagull got saved.
Struggling with their journey, the insects and James spotted land. Centipede cut the silk carefully for a safe landing, but they ended landing on top of the Empire State Building! With a group of cops help, they all got down safely.
The city of New York celebrated the Giant Peach's safe return. The city built a peach house for James, and it became a famous monument for everyone to visit. Few years later, James decided to write stories about his exciting adventure and called his book James and the Giant Peach.
This is an amazing book that must be rated with 5 stars. This book illustrates and describes the exciting and breathtaking journey James goes through with the Giant Peach. This magical story will bring happiness and joy to everyone. I recommend this book to everyone who loves adventures just like me. Every time when I eat a peach, I will remember James's insect friends, Centipede, Silkworm, Glow-worm...
By Hannah Choi #5 3/26/09
Exellent edition Having missed out on the experience of James and the Giant Peach as a child, I decided to read it now. I found it to be a fairly entertaining tale and kept my interest enough that I really read it rather quickly. It's a short book, but a lot of adventure is packed into that small amount of pages. I did find it a bit dark at points, especially the beginning, but I guess that's not all that uncommon for a lot of children's literature.
A specific note about the Lane Smith illustrated edition that was released around the time of the Disney film (which I have been holding off on seeing because I hadn't read the book yet!), the illustrations are excellent. They added an extra dimension to the story itself and were perfect depictions of Dahl's descriptions. I would highly recommend this version if you don't already own the book.
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