James and the Giant Peach

I picked this book up at school today for something quick to read.  My first impression a few pages in was not overwhelminly good.  I doubted seriously that this would be a good book for my children to read. It was very dark, sad and just plain awful.  The whole story of James' parents getting eaten by a wild rhinoceros one day and leaving him alone with the two mean aunts was bad enough.  But then the way they talked to him and treated him was terrible.  But I held on and kept reading.  Then it got fun and way on out there.  A weird little troll appears and gives James a bag of magical crocodile tongues which James promptly drops.  The tongues disappear into the dirt and suddenly a peach appears on the old dead peach tree.  The aunts are amazed as the peach starts to grow.  And grow, and grow and grow.  The peach grows until it is as big as a house and the aunts see their chance to cash in.  Later they lock James out of the house to count their loot and he finds a hole/tunnel and crawls inside the belly of the peach.  Inside the pit he finds a wonderful group of new friends.  A grasshopper, a ladybug, a spider, a glow worm, a centipede, an earthworm and a silkworm.  Once James joins them the centipede chomps through the stem and sets the peach off rolling down the hillside.  The peach rolls into the sea and the group is off on a fun, sometimes dangerous adventure where they learn about being friends and where James learns that he IS a valuable and loved little boy after all.
Great book in the end. Would say it would be good for probably 3rd grade and up.  I never did see then movie so I can't say if it was as good, better or worse than the book but I did enjoy the book. Dahl has a dark, hard sense of humor sometimes and is kind of twisted in lots of ways.  Look for references to the chocolate factory, vermicious knids, snozwangers and a few other things that might be familiar if you are a Charlie fan.

[book:James and the Giant Peach|6689]