Nope, ciao. Even with your instruction and with Javascript enabled, no way of finding who has rated ...
Nope, ciao. Even with your instruction and with Javascript enabled, no way of finding who has rated me. I can do it with other people's reviews, but not mine. Once again, computer says 'No!'
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We have a very old copy of James and the Giant Peach. I believe it was my wife's when she was a little girl. Now, we have started reading Roald Dahl books to our son, with him reading bits and bobs for himself as we go along. The latest one is Jame sand the Giant Peach, and it really is a very well created and told story.
Dahl is one of the most celebrated children's authors ever. His storytelling was amazing in my eyes when I was a kid, and it still is now that I am an adult. I had never read this one before we started reading it to Will, so it was as much of an exciting read for me as it was for him.
James is a sad boy. He lives with his Aunt Sponge and his Aunt Spiker in a house with a sloping garden. They are horrible to him, and he longs for the day when he doesn't have to be looked after them any more. His time comes sooner than he expected, as one day a peach in the garden starts growing bigger and bigger and bigger until it is absolutely huge, bigger even than James and his aunts.
One evening, James goes outside, and when he finds a hole in the peach big enough to crawl into, he obliges. What will he find at the centre? And what adventures will become of him crawling into the peach?
Well, Dahl certainly has created an amazing tale here. His array of characters is well described, with a whole bunch of bugs and insects characterised into larger than life sizes for James to adventure with. The clever descriptions of the bugs and insects, such as Miss Spider and the blind Earthworm who likes to have something to moan about is wonderfully done, as is the sort of adventures they embark upon once the peach breaks free from its stalk and starts rolling away.
I suppose the thing about Dahl's tales isn't whether or not there are huge surprises round the corner - I think it's a key fact of his storytelling that things are a little imaginative, with things that you would not get in the real world becoming rather commonplace in every story I have read f his, save the autobiographical books.
James and the Giant Peach is a brilliant story to read to your kids. There are a few longish descriptive paragraphs which may bore them a little if they aren't completely switched on, but the conversational elements of the book are hilarious, with the characters so well described and used, vocally, that they are instantly imaginable whilst reading.
I thoroughly recommend reading this book. There are roughly 100 pages in the book, and this is a copy with quite small writing. There are a few illustrations dotted around the place, but I imagine a book with larger writing would mean more pages even without these illustrations. James and the Giant Peach is currently available to buy at the regular retail price of £5.99 or so, although I have noticed that the Book People are currently doing a fantastic book offer where you get 15 Dahl books for a mere £15.99. I'm off to buy them. Recommended.
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Sep 26th, 2009
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