James and the Giant Peach in Never too Late to Read Classics

Jan 02, 2013 midnightfaerie rated it liked it

Shelves: childrens, classics

I read James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl with my five year old. We had just finished Charlotte's Web and I was looking for chapter books I could enjoy as well. And I knew we had the movie so we could watch it when we were done. It turned out to be a great choice. Dahl uses the cliffhanger method at the end of almost every one of his chapters, and each chapter is only a page or two long. That combined with great illustrations, made for a win-win situation. I often ended a chapter only to ha I read James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl with my five year old. We had just finished Charlotte's Web and I was looking for chapter books I could enjoy as well. And I knew we had the movie so we could watch it when we were done. It turned out to be a great choice. Dahl uses the cliffhanger method at the end of almost every one of his chapters, and each chapter is only a page or two long. That combined with great illustrations, made for a win-win situation. I often ended a chapter only to have my son beg for another. This is a good sign, and something he didn't do with Charlotte's Web, even though he enjoyed it too. I also picked it because it was something I had never read. Turns out it was the perfect selection all around. Only took us a few weeks to read it and it was highly enjoyable. The characters come alive in a way other stories about bugs never did for me. I actually found myself sympathizing with the earthworm. The imagination and magic factor held me the whole time, and my son and I often discussed what would happen next. Some of our ideas were so far out there, but we laughed, knowing it was highly possible, even probable that they could very well be true. Dahl's penchant for silliness and the unexpected made our guesses that much more realistic.

The vocabulary was perfect, just enough to keep me from being bored, but easy enough for my son to understand, and we both learned new words! His was peach stone, another name for a peach pit. Mine was steeplejacks, and no, I won't tell you what it is, you have to look it up. Dahl's writing is fantastic, and I had great fun making up tunes to his songs throughout the book. The book definitely has the longevity factor going for it, and children can appreciate the many themes of friendship and loyalty for the duration the book. So in these regards I think it can be considered a classic.

The only complaint that some may have about this book is that he uses the word "ass" a few times in it, and even though I was told about it, I was still surprised when I stumbled over their use. Because I was reading this to my son, it wasn't a problem, I just substituted a word for it or skipped over it. If a child is reading the book on their own, well, I'm a big believer that if the adult cares so much, they should be reading the books first and then discussing it with their kids. Much of the great literature that's out there has ideas that are taboo in polite circles or are difficult concepts to explain when looking at human history. But that's what makes them great. And it's much better to educate your child, and do it yourself, before they get misconstrued opinions from the world at large or other teachers. I remember many teachers I had that pushed their opinions, good and bad on students when reading literature. That's a parent's responsibility. As for this book, it was excellent. And I highly recommend it for your first chapter books for your child.

Now for the movie. I was excited because this was the first time my son had read a book and seen the movie afterward. It was funny to see how disappointed he was. That sounds bad. What I mean is, he enjoyed it and we had a fun "popcorn night" that is one of his favorite things, but his favorite part of the movie was the part about the sharks. He was like, "There wasn't a robot shark in the book! Where are the real sharks? And what happened to the cloud men?" I laughed. I told him it often happens that the movie is nothing like the book and then asked which he liked better. He vehemently exclaimed "The book!" Which, of course, was the whole objective. Lesson learned.

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