Book Report: James and the Giant Peach

Retold by Jordan Minamide
Original story by Roald Dahl


James Henry Trotter lived with his mother and father. James was about four years old when his parents were eaten by a rhino. So, James had to go live with his Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, who constantly beat James for no reason.

On one hot summer day, while chopping wood, James starts to cry, he could have been at the beach, playing in the ocean. Aunt Sponge tells Aunt Spiker to beat James for not working. But, Aunt Spiker says she will do it when it’s not that hot.

James then goes behind the bushes and cries some more. Then an old man comes out from behind the bushes. He gives James a while paper bag with green crystals in it. He tells James that if he put the crystals in a jug of water with 10 strands of his hair and drinks it, he won’t be miserable again.

When James runs toward the kitchen, he falls and all the green crystals go in the ground. Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker find him on the ground and yell at him to go back to work.
Before James could go back to work, Aunt Spiker called Aunt Sponge to see something. It was a peach, on a peach tree that never grew peaches.

Aunt Sponge wanted to eat it, but Aunt Spiker stopped her. Aunt Spiker said it was growing, she was right! When the peach grew until it was as big as a house, it stopped growing.

Aunt Sponge wanted to eat it, but Aunt Spiker said they could charge people who want to see it. The next day, people came to see the peach.

James’ two aunts made him stay inside because he would get in peoples way. After everyone left, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker made James pick up the garbage outside.
He went to the peach and found there is a hole in it. James crawls in, and he finds out it’s a tunnel to the peach stone.

Inside the stone are large insects. The insects were a grasshopper, ladybug, centipede, earthworm, spider and in the corner, he thought was a silkworm, but it was sleeping.

The Grasshopper said he was glad James was here. The centipede then made James take off his boots. While James was taking off the centipede’s boots, all the creatures went to sleep.

After James took off Centipede’s boots, Centipede yelled to turn the light off. This was the first time he looked at the ceiling. There was a glowworm. She said “Hi James.” And the light turned off.

James awoke to everyone yelling. Ladybug told James what was going on, she said that the only thing that prevented them from rolling off the hill is the stem of the peach, so Centipede is biting the stem of the peach.

Then the peach started shaking. Centipede said he cut through the stem of the peach. Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker had just got to the entrance table, so the peach ran over them.

It rolled all the way to the ocean. Then sharks came and started lunging at the peach. James said they could fly out of the ocean by using seagulls.

Everyone except Earthworm went inside the peach because birds like worms. Everyone woke up the silkworm and told him to spin string with Miss Spider. So when the first seagull came, James pulled Earthworm down and put a loop of string on the seagull’s neck and the other to the peach stem. They did this about 500 times before they came out of the ocean and flew in the clouds.

They ran into a lot of clouds, and on it were people. James said they were Cloud Men. The Cloud Men were dropping hail stones practicing for winter.

Centipede started taunting them because it was summer. Then the Cloud Men started throwing hailstones at them. Two of the hailstones hit Centipede. Everyone then retreated into the peach.

When everybody got on the top of the peach, there were no more Cloud Men. Then they saw an arc. They didn’t know what it was, then, Centipede pointed out that there was Cloud Men on it. He wasn’t going to take any chances so he went inside the peach. James noticed the Cloud Men were painting the arc. Then everyone knew it was a rainbow. They called Centipede to come up and it was safe. Centipede then pointed out that there are lowering the rainbow with ropes, and they were going to crash into it!

The silk strings got tangled with the ropes. The peach also broke the rainbow.
The Cloud Men were mad and they threw anything they got their hands on. One Cloud Man poured paint over the edge of the cloud and it landed on Centipede!

When the seagulls pulled them away and they wondered what they should do with Centipede. Earthworm said that if Centipede stuck his tongue out really far, they can pull it and he will have new skin.

Then a big glob of water came rushing down on the peach. When the seagulls pulled them away Centipede was normal, the water washed off the paint. Then they saw New York.

Out of nowhere, an airplane sliced through the silk strings. The peach fell toward the ground. Then the peach landed on the needle of the Empire State building. The police and fire department went up to the peach.

People looked up and wondered what it was. After James explained how nice the insects are and that there not aliens, they helped them down.

The city had a ticker tape parade for the visitors. A girl asks James if she could have a bite of the peach. James said everyone can.

At the end of the parade it was just the stone. The peach stone was made into a house and put in Central Park for James to live in.