James and the Giant Peach

James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

James and the Giant Peach is a classic novel by Roald Dahl and is one of my personal favourites from when I was younger. This text follows the adventure of James when a peach within his evil auntie’s house somehow grows a thousand times its original size. By exploring James is able to find some peculiar creatures living in the peach and take them on a journey to the city of New York. This was where James’s parents always wanted to take him. This journey comes with obstacles and challenges to face; however, James is determined for his dream to come true.

This novel is highly engaging, humorous, full of adventure and excitement and above all excites the reader with every page turned. This fantasy text does an excellent job of engaging young children into a world where they are taught to believe in outrageous events. They will strive for the things that they want to achieve and explore possibilities that they could only imagine in their dreams. James and the Giant Peach has also been turned into a film many years ago and would be great to read the text with students in years three to seven and then compare the book to the film.  Roald Dahl was a fantastic author and has used a great amount of technique both written and visual, sentence structure and creative storytelling to engage young readers. This novel is very imaginative and when the comedy and adventure is pushed aside, it has very sentimental messages. James and the Giant Peach is a timeless text that could be studied within a primary English classroom.

Author: Roald Dahl

1961, Puffin Books, London, Great Britain

IBSN: 0-14-038234-8

Genre/theme: Adventure/Comedy/Fantasy

Age: 8-12 (years 3-7)

Contributor: Keelan Mackle