I like to start off my participation in every Dewey 24 Hour Readathon by reading a Roald Dahl book. My first book for the April 2013 Readathon was James And The Giant Peach. Of course, because I am lazy as heck, I’ve waited until September to review this whimsical, awesome book that was one of my childhood favorites. Also? Remember the movie? That was so awesome and I think I need to revisit it like right now and you know put my review off for even LONGER! Anyways, first things first, I totally read James In The Giant Peach in under an hour because I am a bit of a super reader AND because it’s fast pacing and interesting and one of my favorites.
The plot of James And The Giant Peach is one that I totally remember months after reading, heck even years after reading this for the first time. Basically James lives with the meanest aunts ever, because his parents died when he was very, very young. One day, he obtains some magical crystals, I think, and accidentally spills them on this peach tree. From there, a peach grows to be the biggest ever seen. His awful Aunts Spiker and Aunt Sponge decide to charge admission to people wanting to see the peach and let James see none of the profits. THEN James ends up crawling inside of the peach, meets some human sized bugs and is rolling off into the horizon to better days. And really, that’s the story, well plus his journey with the peach.
Obviously I loved James Henry Trotter. He’s a plucky orphan, what is not to love. I also LOLed at the mean aunts because I am an awful human being. There was one bug that I found super annoying, the centipede. He’s selfish and a total jerk. Ugh. I am just annoyed thinking about it. OHHHHHH and there are some seagulls in the adventure and of course they were my favorite part of the whole book, you’ll see when you read it or remember it.
James And The Giant Peach by Roald Dahl is a fun, short adventure about an orphan who overcomes terrible circumstances with the help of magic and some bugs that actually are not scary. If you’ve got a small child in your life, I highly recommend you read this one to them. Also! I am just going to put out there that my version did not have Quentin Blake illustrations which is a bit of a disappointment, I need to get an edition that has his illustrations. Seriously, Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake are a match made in heaven and it’s just weird reading a version that doesn’t have the Blake illustrations, even if the illustrations were perfectly nice in my version.
Disclosure: Purchased Copy.
Other reviews of James And The Giant Peach by Roald Dahl:
A Reader Of Fictions – “he has imagination and humor like no other”
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I can’t remember if I’ve ever read this book or only seen the movie… XD Either way, the story’s good!
I absolutely adore the work of Roald Dahl, so I was extremely excited when I saw your review today 😀 I’ve read The Witches more times than I can count, and while James and the Giant Peach isn’t one of my personal favourites, I never fail to marvel at Dahl’s seemingly endless creativity. As you mentioned, it’s nearly impossible to forget his novels months or even years after you’ve read them because Dahl’s concepts are alway so outlandish and ingenuously bizarre. I also appreciate that they’re a little darker than middle grade fiction traditionally tends to be. I like stories with a little bit of bite, and you never feel as though Dahl was ‘dumbing down’ his concepts simply because he was writing for a younger target audience, which I appreciate immensely.
This was a wonderful review, April, and you made me want to dust off all of my Dahl novels and re-read them immediately. I would pretend to be angry if I weren’t so excited and inspired 😛
I got all nervous for a sec that I had missed the Dewey readathon this year-I thought it was in October and I really want to participate in one as I’ve been blogging for almost 4 years without doing so. But then you shared that this was from April. I like your idea of starting with a Dahl book and may borrow that idea for my own experience.
I remember loving this book as a kid and reading it often. Most of the plot escapes me now though. Can’t believe it was ever a banned books.
Yeah, the Centipede! That guy’s such a jerk, but at least he knows he’s a jerk. Meanwhile this book left a permanent mark on me in that I find it very very difficult to kill spiders. I always think of James’s song about spiders and how helpful and good they are.
(Centipedes no. I killed a centipede the other day and I felt horror at its grossness but zero remorse.)
Hmmm, I did not like this one as much as an adult. SAD DAY. Probably I should have let it remain there. I always want to revisit, but sometimes I end up ruining books for myself. Like The Giver and Madaleine L’engle.