James and the Giant Peach - Softcover

Dahl, Roald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140306234 ISBN 13: 9780140306231

Publisher: Puffin Books, Middlesex, 1973

Synopsis

An enormous escaped rhinoceros from London Zoo has eaten James's parents. And it gets worse! James is packed off to live with his two really horrible aunts, Sponge and Spiker. Poor James is miserable, until something peculiar happens and James finds himself on the most wonderful and extraordinary journey he could ever imagine...

About this title

Review:

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. James befriends an assortment of hilarious characters, including Grasshopper, Earthworm, Miss Spider and Centipede--each with his or her own song to sing. Roald Dahl's rich imagery and amusing characters ensure that parents will not tire of reading this classic aloud, which they will no doubt be called to do over and over again! We'll just come right out and say it ... James and the Giant Peach is one of the finest children's books ever written.

Review:

"This newly-illustrated edition of an avowed children's favorite has all the makings of a classic match-up: Milne had Shepard, Carroll had Tenniel, and now Dahl has Smith...author and illustrator were made for each other, and it's of little consequence that it took almost 35 years for them to meet" --"Kirkus."

About this edition

• Publisher: Puffin Books, Middlesex
• Publication date: 1973
• ISBN 10: 0140306234
• ISBN 13: 9780140306231
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 111