Meet James, a young fella who lives with his ugly aunts who are fat and ugly. Did I mention one of them is fat? Yeah, I mean Roal Dhal loves to make fun of big people- also blind people - but I digress. James is walking alone one day when he meets a suspicious individual who suggests he gets some suspicious items he is giving him and eats them; if he does so, magical things will happen. Marvelous things, indeed. Kids, make fun of fat people by creating funny rhymes and get lots of candy from strangers! Magical things will happen if you do so! Like getting inside a giant peach with a bunch of giant bugs who are mean to each other and to everybody else, just as much as the aunts are mean, James is mean, literally everybody is mean. I never read kids books with such horrible messages like Dahl's.

Jones, Kenneth (21 October 2010). " James and the Giant Peach, the Musical, Blossoms with the Help of Pilobolus, Oct. 21". Playbill . Retrieved 12 September 2016. A chance encounter with a slightly creepy and definitely odd (and quite frankly, suspiciously pedophilic if the quotes are taken out of context) old man leads to a new sort of adventure: Come right up close to me and I will show you something wonderful.James is gifted with a bag of pure magic. Only he manages to spoil his chance at happiness by spilling the bag... Crocodile tongues! One thousand long slimy crocodile tongues boiled up in the skull of a dead witch for twenty days and nights with the eyeballs of a lizard! Add the fingers of a young monkey, the gizzard of a pig, the beak of a green parrot, the juice of a porcupine, and three spoonfuls of sugar. Stew for another week, and then let the moon do the rest!" After the tourists have gone, James is assigned to clean the rubbish around the peach and finds a hole inside it. He crawls in, through a tunnel, and he finds himself in a room, in the enlarged peach pit. There, he meets Centipede, Miss Spider, Old Green Grasshopper, Earthworm, Ladybug, Glowworm, and Silkworm who become his friends. Roald Dahl is the author of numerous classic children’s stories including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, and many more!I also really loved that there was a reference in the story to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The peach crashes into a chocolate factory causing a stream of chocolate to swarm the streets! It was awesome! The book was made into a musical with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and book by Timothy Allen McDonald. The musical had its premiere at Goodspeed Musicals on 21 October 2010, and is currently produced in regional and youth theatre. [24] [25] Theatrical adaptation [ edit ] Justin Kroll (22 May 2017). "Sam Mendes in Early Talks to Direct 'Pinocchio' Live-Action Movie". Variety . Retrieved 22 May 2017. Mendes will no longer direct the "James and the Giant Peach" remake for Disney, which he was attached to less than a year ago.

As I (finally) read the book, my scattered childhood memories fell into place. And my initial impression remains essentially the same: A really bad trip on the fun dip. “I'd rather be fried alive and eaten by Mexicans.” Honestly, what was Dahl on when he wrote this?

I knew I liked this book as a kid but I couldn't remember the details of the story. The thing that stayed in my mind all these years was the feeling of claustrophobia when James makes his way inside the peach and finds all the giant, friendly creepy-crawlies inside the peach pit. As a kid you always place yourself within the story, and I remember thinking how I'd hate to be in that enclosed space with all those critters and no windows. There was no fear of Old-Green-Grasshopper or Centipede or Earthworm or any of the others, just the feeling that if I were James I'd want OUT of that peach pit and into the fresh air. Here's the thing, before this book, I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to my boy. *That* was an interesting book. Charlie was in a bad place. He was a sympathetic character. He *wanted* something for himself. He strove for it. And when he got it, we, the readers, were delighted. So, a couple of month ago I got gifted a whole box of Roal Dahl's books by somebody who knew very well he was my favourite author when I was a child. So, obviously, I decided to re-read all his books. And the more I read them, the more I become convinced that I don't really like Roald Dahl. I mean, his ideas are bizarre and funny but after a while they just become repetitive. Also, he's mean!! I would sincerely think twice before giving his books to a kid...