BOOK REVIEW

James and the Giant Peach

James and the Giant Peach is a much-loved children’s book written by the world-renowned Welsh author Roald Dahl. First published in the US in 1961 and the UK in 1967, the book’s rich imagery and amusing characters have made it a firm favourite of both children and parents for over 50 years.

When poor James Henry Trotter loses his parents in a horrible rhinoceros accident, he is forced to live with his two wicked aunts, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. After three years he becomes "the saddest and loneliest boy you could find". Then one day, a wizened old man in a dark-green suit gives James a bag of magic crystals that promise to reverse his misery forever. When James accidentally spills the crystals on his aunts' withered peach tree, he sets the adventure in motion. From the old tree a single peach grows, and grows, and grows some more, until finally James climbs inside the giant fruit and rolls away from his despicable aunts to a whole new life…

Roald Dahl wrote many excellent children’s books and James and the Giant Peach is up there amongst his very best. This brilliant and hugely popular story of James’s journey to New York alongside his insect friends is a joy for children to read and a delight for parents to read from. The book’s humour is always warm and the story is always engaging, providing a multitude of memorable moments.

When Dahl made up James and the Giant Peach as a bedtime story for his daughters Olivia and Tessa, little could he have know that half a century later millions of parents would have read exactly the same story to their own children. A book that fully deserves the accolade of children’s classic.

This James and the Giant Peach book review was written by Floresiensis