James & the Giant Peach
by Roald Dahl
Fantasy, Fiction, Classics, Young-Adult, Middle-Grade, Adventure
James Henry Trotter lives with two ghastly hags. Aunt Sponge is enormously fat with a face that looks boiled and Aunt Spiker is bony and screeching. He’s very lonely until one day something peculiar happens. . . At the end of the garden a peach starts to grow and GROW AND GROW. Inside that peach are seven very unusual insects – all waiting to take James on a magical adventure. But where will they go in their GIANT PEACH, and what will happen to the horrible aunts if they stand in their way? There’s only one way to find out . . .
Recommendations from Common Sense Media
Age Recommendation: 8+
What Parents Need to Know:
Parents need to know that James and the Giant Peach creates a marvelous, fantastical world for young independent readers. Dahl’s original cast of characters, magical and suspenseful situations, and his liberal addition of comic poetry also make this a terrific read-aloud book. However, Dahl’s books are not always warm-and-fuzzy: James is orphaned on Page One, and he is treated cruelly by his selfish aunts. And, incidentally, his only true friends are giant insects. This is a charming, fast-paced fantasy for children who are ready to separate fact from fiction. If your kids enjoy the novel, also check out Tim Burton and Henry Selick’s wonderful animated film adaptation, which came out in 1996.
Educational Value: 2/5
Like Roald Dahl’s other great children’s novels, James and the Giant Peach is really meant to entertain and uplift, not necessarily to educate. Dahl did throw in a few fascinating facts about insects and animals (ladybugs eat garden pests, and so are considered farmer’s helpers, for example), but young readers might not necessarily separate the true from the fantastic, such as the “cloudmen” who send rain and hail down to earth.
Positive Messages: 2/5
Dahl was a master at creating these fantastical Dickensian situations, in which a poor, deserving but unloved child’s life is magically transformed. The positive message here is primarily that, as the old man tells James, “marvelous things” can happen. It’s also worth noting the way James overcomes his fear of the insects once he sees past their shocking size and appearance. You can’t judge a book by its cover, in other words.
Positive Role Models: 2/5
There are some mean grownups in this book, but James is an upstanding little boy: good, kind, clever, and resourceful. James and his insect pals also show how teamwork — with everyone contributing his or her special talent — can save the day.
Violence & Scariness: 1/5
The demise of James’ parents happens before the action in the novel begins, and that is probably the only event in the novel that could be upsetting to children. James’ cruel aunts, Sponge and Spiker, beat him often, but that action is not shown. Later, the peach itself leaves some destruction in its wake, and sharks and the weather-making cloudmen threaten harm, but this is all within the realm of fantasy.
Language: 1/5
On two occasions, Centipede calls other characters “asses.”
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