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Summary: James and the Giant Peach - VR
Review: I love this book because it made me really use my imagination and there was many more lessons derived from it besides the obvious. It really made me think, even though it was a children's book, and it has been one of my favorites since i first read it as a child.
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Summary: Beautiful Story...
Review: When you read reviews for books to see if they are any good, trust me on this one! This book is excellent. James goes on a marvelous adventure among a peach to get away from his dreadful aunts, and meets a few friends along the way! If you have read any of Roald Dahl's books, and enjoyed it, then you should definitely read this!
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Summary: Read with caution
Review: I read this book to my 7 and 4 year old children. They really enjoyed having the time with me and the story was very exciting. I would caution parents to the fact that even though this is a highly regarded author for children's book, there are alot instances of nasty name calling by James' aunt and the Centipede refers to another insect "ass" on two occasions. When I was reading to my children I just skipped over that but I would be concerned if my child had been reading it alone. My second grader reads above level so parents should be aware that the writing is for an slightly older, not so impressionable child. As a conscientious Christian parent, I object to seeing children's books with harse adult language. This book comes a little too close to that and that is why I recommend this book with reservations.
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Summary: This story will remain in my mind forever!!!
Review: I'm 13 years old and I live in Bangkok, Thailand, also I'm learning English. When I was 8th grader, I started learning English with this book. This story was great, and the great author wrote it. This story gave me an understanding of orphans and adventures. There was a fantasy and strange happening events with a giant peach which was bigger than an elephant. The ending was the happy conclusion after the problem. I think that the theme of this book is that we don't give up when we are in trouble and try as hard as we can, then the problem will solve.
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Summary: Giant-Sized Adventure for Enormous Fun!
Review: Researchers constantly find that reading to children is valuable in a variety of ways, not least of which are instilling a love of reading and improved reading skills. With better parent-child bonding from reading, your child will also be more emotionally secure and able to relate better to others. Intellectual performance will expand as well. Spending time together watching television fails as a substitute. To help other parents apply this advice, as a parent of four I consulted an expert, our youngest child, and asked her to share with me her favorite books that were read to her as a young child. James and the Giant Peach was one of her picks. The book is a wonderful witty exploration of the marvels of imagination as applied to nature. Every reader will look much more closely at the world around after finding so many interesting details to consider. The story begins when James Henry Trotter was about four years old. He had been living happily with his parents in England. One day, they went shopping and were eaten by an angry runaway rhinoceros which had escaped from the London zoo. As a result, their wonderful home was sold and James Henry Trotter came to live with his decidedly dastardly aunts Sponge and Spiker. They mistreated and overworked James Michael Trotter much like the abuse that Cinderella experienced at the hands by her evil stepmother and stepsisters. Poor James! He has become the most unhappy, lonely, and woebegone orphan in the world. But his luck changes when a mysterious old man gives him some magic, in the form of wriggling little green things to put into water and drink. Then their magic will help James. "Whoever they meet first, be it bug . . . or tree, that will be . . . who gets the full power of their magic!" James is told to hold the bag tight and to hurry. But, alas, he trips and the contents of the bag spill out underneath the old barren peach tree in the yard. Quickly, the magic seeps into the ground as James scrambles to retrieve it. Soon, the aunts spot a peach growing in the very top of the tree. And it keeps growing . . . and growing . . . and growing . . . and growing . . . until it's the size of a house. They concoct a scheme to get rich by charging admission to see the peach, while James is to stay out all night cleaning up the mess the visitors have made. Tired, he decides to look at the giant peach. He notices a hole, like a giant worm's tunnel in the bottom. He climbs in. What he finds leads him on one of the most amazing journeys that any 7 year old has ever had or imagined! This story has a lot in common with Alice in Wonderland. Everything that happens prior to going through the hole in the peach is but a preamble for the role reversal in which the peach and the insects inside of it are made to be enormous. This is like Alice drinking the potion that makes her small. Yet the rest of the world stays its normal size. Basically, this is an encouragement to take the qualities of peaches and insects more seriously by exaggering their significance. You will learn a lot, and be charmed by how the information builds the story. Along the way, Mr. Dahl asks some very interesting questions: How do grasshoppers make sounds? What benefits do earthworms, lady bugs, and spiders bring for people? How many legs does a centipede have? He also provides many fantastic explanations of natural processes, introducing cloud-men to make rainbows, hail, and rain. These are great fun and help develop the story. Whenever James seeks to create a balance in and with nature, things work just fine. A good example is that he uses filament spun by the silk worm and the spider to tie to gulls who carry the peach aloft over the ocean. Harness just the right number of gulls and progress is smooth. Harness too few, and nothing happens. That subliminal message is a valuable one for every reader. The ending is particularly fine for expanding on the concept of how each being's peculiarities can be strengths. The book appears to draw on The Ugly Duckling story for inspiration. Even James' loneliness serves him well, in the end. I also like this story for its potential to inspire writers. Walk into your kitchen, and pick up the first item you see. Then build a story around it, like Mr. Dahl has done with this peach. If you do this with a child, you will both be the richer for the experience. After you are done enjoying the story and writing your own, I also suggest that you think about ways that you can live in greater harmony with nature. What aspects of your life would you have to change? How could you be as useful to nature as the earthworm is to the farmer? What gratifications would you feel from doing this? Spring will be coming in a few months, and the opportunity to do some organic gardening using the materials in your own yard will be there. Plan to get closer to nature, and make notes about what you observe every day. You will enjoy great peace as a result. If you haven't read Thoreau recently, this would be a good time to do so. Have a peachy time!
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Summary: This book is a biiggg hit!
Review: This book is awesome! It's about a boy whose name is James. His parents die because a rhinoceros is let loose from the zoo and it eats James's parents. James is sent off to live with his mean Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge. One day, James is chopping wood and he stops for one minute and his aunts tell him to go inside, and he runs behind the house and there is an old man there with a bag that has green emeralds in it. He gives the bag to James and tells him what to do with it and James runs off but he trips and the emeralds bounce out and James has to chop wood again. I like this book and you will like it too!
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Summary: If you like action, this is the book for you!!
Review: This is an awesome book! It is about a boy named James. James' parents die in a plane crash and James is sent to go live with his aunts. His aunts treat him like dirt. One day James meets a magical man. He gives James a bag with little green things in it. James runs home with the bag and suddenly... he drops it. He wakes up in the morning and cleans the mess his aunts made. He soon gets to go into a giant peach and the book tells all about the adventures in it. This was an awesome book!!
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Summary: Roald Dahl is weird but he sure can write.
Review: Utterly delightful and whimsical but as always with the strange Mr. D totally unsentimental, this story sweeps you along with a wonderful melange of eccentric characters and his unfailing narrative pulse until suddenly and marvelously you find yourself perched atop the Empire State Building in an inspired ending to this wondrous adventure. I devoured this book smiling all the way through. Dahl is hard to categorize, unique and not a little disquieting, but oh the places you'll go (to steal a line from Dr Seuss) when Dahl presses his narrative pedal to the floor.
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Summary: It is a great book
Review: When I started reading this book it was sad. It got a lot funnier. It was funny because the centipede thought he was all that. The story is about a boy who lived with his aunts. Somehow a peach tree begins to grow huge and he leaves with a giant peach that grew on the tree and broke off. My favorite part was when the bugs turned lifesize. The peach lands in New York and James makes a home out of the giant pit.
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Summary: One of The Best Books
Review: I first thought the book was kind of boring, after I read a couple of chapters it started to get good. This story is about a boy who's parents were killed, and he had to live with his two mean and cruel aunts.His aunts made James do all the work like clean the floor and mop the floors they were very cruel. One day a man gave James a paper bag that had alot of little green bugs in it. After the man was gone James accidentally dropped the bag full of those little green bugs. As soon as you know all of those little green bugs were in the soil. The next morning there was a huge peach right where James had dropped the green bugs. his aunts sold tickets to see the giant peach, they made alot of money. When everyone was gone James had to clean all the trash that the people left behind.As he was picking up trashhe heard a noise inside the peach, as soon as he knew it a whole started to appear.James went into the whole and he started to change into a cartoon. when he got into the middle of the peach he saw some bugs. Soon after that the bugs and the bugs got acquainted and became very good friends. I can't tell you the rest or I'll spoil it for you . My favorite part was when thepeach falls off the mountian and it rolls up the hill it looks like thw sun is coming upand the roosteer started to crow . I like the ending because James got his dream.
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