Young James was orphaned at four years-old and sent to live with his horrendous aunts, Sponge and Spiker, who force him to work non-stop around their hilltop house. One day a weird man appears and hands James a bag of magic stuff, telling him that if he dissolves the stuff in water and drinks it, his life will become happy. Too excited and being chased by an aunt, James drops the magic stuff next to the old peach tree that has never produced fruit, but the magic stuff fixes that. The peach tree produces an immense peach, big enough for James to crawl inside and meet the variety of insects who also benefited from the magic stuff, and they were waiting for put-upon James to arrive before using the peach for their great adventure. I am currently reading it to my kindergarten students and our middle school is putting on a performance of the musical. ( )

I remember reading this while sitting in the local library as a child, I have no idea what year or who read it to me perhaps it was my mom. it was an illustrated book and I remember loving it then. in rereading it I find it charming but I was unable to recapture the magic from the first time. ( )

20 copies

Independent reading grades 1-5
1982 Wins Federation of Children’s Book Groups Award (for The BFG) and Massachusetts Children’s Award (for James and the Giant Peach ). 1983 Wins New York Times Outstanding Books Award, Federation of Children’s Book Groups Award, and Whitbread Award (all for The Witches ).

Independent Read: Grades 4th - 5th
Awards: Massachusetts Children's Award ( )