JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH
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This classic children’s book by Roald Dahl is wildly imaginative. It begins with James’s mother and father getting eaten by a rhinoceros. Sent to live with his aunts Sponge and Spiker, James is delivered from his misery by a queer little man who gives him a bag full of bits of crocodile tongues, which, after James spills them, enlarge everything they touch, including insects in the grass and a peach on the tree above him.
The next day James follows a tunnel in the gigantic peach and discovers a peach pit inhabited by human-size worms and bugs–Old Green Grasshopper, Ladybug, Centipede, Spider, Earthworm, Silkworm, and Glo-worm, who serves as the resident light bulb. They decide to roll the peach downhill, squash Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker in the process, and end up in the sea, where sharks begin to devour the juicy fruit. Thinking fast, James has Silkworm and Spider start spinning rope that can be used to lasso the seagulls flying overhead. When enough gulls have been harnessed, they lift the peach out of the sea and tow it to New York, where it ends up impaled on the Empire State Building.
Still, James and the Giant Peach doesn’t make a very good play. But the play does put the spotlight on this gem of a book, and it reminds parents that children can imagine all sorts of wonders when guided by a good story.
