James And The Giant Peach

63 pages • 2 hours read

James And The Giant Peach

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1961

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Introduction

Before Reading

During Reading

After Reading

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

CHAPTERS 1-13

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Reading Check

1. What is the only tree on the property of James’s aunts’ house?

2. What chore does James have to do until he runs away in frustration?

3. What does the old man carry in a white paper bag?

4. What does James discover on the side of the peach?

5. According to Earthworm, how many legs does Centipede have?

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Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Describe the circumstances that lead James to live with Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. How does his new life differ from his old?

2. Summarize James’s encounter with the old man. Why is this meeting unusual and what does the man give James?

3. What happens to the contents of James’s bag? How does this event link with the discovery that James’s aunts make?

4. What idea does Aunt Spiker have regarding the giant peach? What is James’s role in the plan?

5. Who does James meet inside of the peach? How are these beings related to James and the contents of the white bag?

Paired Resources

“The Candy Man”

The New Yorker’s 2005 article explores how adults and children often have different perceptions of Dahl’s novels. (This source may require a subscription.)
This article connects with the themes The Strength of Love, Friendship, and Trust to Overcome Adversity; Acceptance Without Judgment or Preconception; and The Role of Optimistic Perseverance in Happy Endings.
Based on the text as well as the above resource, how does Dahl’s novel appeal to adult audiences as well as children?

“Books that Made Us: James and the Giant Peach”

In this article from the LA Review of Books, writer Janelle Brown explores James and the Giant Peach’s place in Roald Dahl’s bibliography.
This article connects with the themes The Strength of Love, Friendship, and Trust to Overcome Adversity; Acceptance Without Judgment or Preconception; and The Role of Optimistic Perseverance in Happy Endings.
Based on the text as well as the above resource, how does this article provide a different perspective to Dahl’s novel?

CHAPTERS 14-25

Reading Check

1. What do the beings inside the peach want to do?

2. What does the giant peach do to Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge?

3. Where do James and his companions discover that they are when they finally reach the top of the peach?

4. Which role does James assume while on the peach in the sea?

5. What object do James and his companions briefly see from the peach before ascending further to the sky?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Describe the adventure of the great peach. Where does it go?

2. Why do James’s companions call him “clever”? Identify the recommendations he makes for their current situation.

3. What sea animal do James and his companions see swimming around them? What plan does James devise to save them from peril?

4. What does Miss Spider discover about the damage to the peach? How does this discovery differ from the groups’ expectations?

5. What type of information does James learn from his companions? How does he react to this newfound knowledge?

Paired Resources

James And The Giant Peach (1996)

The imdb.com page for Walt Disney production’s 1996 animated adaptation of Dahl’s novel includes the film’s trailer and much more information.
This source connects with the themes The Strength of Love, Friendship, and Trust to Overcome Adversity; Acceptance Without Judgment or Preconception; and The Role of Optimistic Perseverance in Happy Endings.
Compare and contrast the 1996 film to Dahl’s novel. What does the Disney adaptation achieve by depicting Dahl’s story with animation as opposed to live action?

“James and the Giant Peach—The Musical”

Stage Agent looks at several different productions of the musical adaptation of Dahl’s novel.
This source connects with the themes The Strength of Love, Friendship, and Trust to Overcome Adversity; Acceptance Without Judgment or Preconception; and The Role of Optimistic Perseverance in Happy Endings.
Compare and contrast the musical adaptation of Dahl’s novel with the original text. How does the use of song amplify certain moments in the plot?

CHAPTERS 26-39

Reading Check

1. Who does James rescue after he falls from the peach?

2. What does the Centipede become trapped in?

3. What do the New Yorkers mistake the giant peach for?

4. What building breaks the peach’s fall?

5. What do the children do to the peach?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Who are the Cloud-men? What two predicaments do James and his companions find themselves in with these men?

2. Which country do James and his companions realize they have flown to? How do they try to get down to the city?

3. How do the policemen respond to meeting James and his companions? How does James introduce his friends to the onlookers?

4. Summarize how James and his companions are treated in the future. What does James decide to do to remember his adventures?

Recommended Next Reads

The BFG by Roald Dahl

Dahl’s 1982 novel centers on the relationship between eight-year-old Sophie and the Big Friendly Giant (BFG).
Shared themes include The Strength of Love, Friendship, and Trust to Overcome Adversity and Acceptance Without Judgment or Preconception.
Shared topics include magical elements in children’s stories and 20th-century children’s literature.
The BFG on SuperSummary

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Carroll’s 1865 children’s novel follows Alice as she encounters different animal friends in a magical environment.
Shared themes include The Strength of Love, Friendship, and Trust to Overcome Adversity and Acceptance Without Judgment or Preconception.
Shared topics include magical elements in children’s stories, the anthropomorphism of animals, and child protagonists.
Alice in Wonderland on SuperSummary

Reading Questions Answer Key

CHAPTERS 1-13

Reading Check

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1. A peach tree (Chapter 1)

2. Chop wood (Chapter 2)

3. Crocodile tongues (Chapter 3)

4. A hole (Chapter 9)

5. 42 (Chapter 11)

Short Answer

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1. James is sent to live with his Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker after his parents are killed by “an enormous angry rhinoceros which had escaped from the London Zoo.” Compared to his parents, who were loving and adored James, his aunts are “selfish and lazy and cruel, and right from the beginning they started beating poor James for almost no reason at all.” Additionally, he used to live by the sea with his parents, and now he lives on a hill that he is not allowed to leave. (Chapter 1)

2. After his aunts scold him, James runs into an old man with “a huge bald head and a face that was covered all over with bristly black whiskers.” The man shows him the inside of a white paper bag, with “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,” ordering James to add the odd contents to a mixture and let it “stew” for another week before he must activate them and drink them so he is no longer “miserable.” (Chapters 3-4)

3. Excited with the prospect of being happy, James runs back to the house with the bag; however, he trips and falls, causing the contents of the bag to burrow quickly into the soil where the dead peach tree is. A few moments later, James hears his aunts’ remark about a peach on the tree, which is quickly growing in size. (Chapters 5-6)

4. Aunt Sponge wants to eat the giant peach, but Aunt Spiker has the idea to make money off of it. Soon, the aunts can make a lot of money by charging tickets while leaving James locked in the house and forcing him to clean up after the crowds. (Chapters 7-8)

5. James navigates a tunnel in the peach, which leads him to the peach pit where he meets Old-Green-Grasshopper, Ladybird, Earthworm, Centipede, Spider, Silkworm, and Glow-worm. He learns that each of these creatures has also digested one of the contents of the white bag. They are overall very welcoming, and James spends the night there. (Chapters 10-13)

CHAPTERS 14-25

Reading Check

1. Roll the peach off the hillside (Chapter 14)

2. It crushes them. (Chapter 15)

3. In “the middle of the sea” (Chapter 18)

4. “[C]aptain” (Chapter 21)

5. A ship (Chapter 23)

Short Answer

1. James’s companions inside of the peach dislocate the fruit from the branch, causing it to roll down the hill, crushing James’s aunts, and wreaking havoc on the people and villages in its path. It finally stops in the water where James wanted to go the day before. (Chapters 15-16)

2. After discovering that the peach is bobbing in the sea, the beings inside the peach are fearful that they will drown and starve; however, James shows his cleverness when he reminds them that they can stay afloat in the peach until a ship finds them and they can eat the peach for nutrients until they are saved. (Chapter 18)

3. James and his companions spot sharks swimming around them, which they believe are eating the peach. To save them, James devises a plan to pull the peach out of the air using rope, which would be hooked around the seagulls’ necks in the sky. (Chapters 19-21)

4. Miss Spider discovers that the damage to the peach is almost negligible, which the group finds hard to believe. The narrator then makes an aside at the accuracy of Miss Spider’s findings, since the length of the sharks’ nose made it difficult for them to bite the peach. (Chapter 23)

5. As they relax on the peach, James learns about the anatomy of his insect friends, including the different places where the ears are located on their bodies. He also learns how important each insect functions ecologically. (Chapters 24-25)

CHAPTERS 26-39

Reading Check

1. The Centipede (Chapter 26)

2. Quick-drying purple paint (Chapter 29)

3. A bomb (Chapter 33)

4. The Empire State Building (Chapter 36)

5. They eat the peach. (Chapter 38)

Short Answer

1. As the peach floats through the air, James and his companions encounter Cloud-men making hailstones. After the Centipede taunts them, the Cloud-men pummel the peach with hailstones; soon after, James and his companions realize that they are heading right in the middle of a newly constructed rainbow, which the peach damages. (Chapters 27-28)

2. By the time morning arrives, James and his companions look down and realize they are now floating over America in their giant peach. They concoct a plan to slowly lower themselves down to the city. (Chapter 32)

3. The first responders of New York City are shocked to see non-human beings coming out of the peach. They assume they are unusual aliens until James appears, reassuring the onlookers that his companions are friendly and safe. He sings a song telling everyone the importance of each insect, and the onlookers respond positively. (Chapter 37)

4. James and his friends are all able to secure well-paying jobs and good families for themselves. James sets up his house in the peach pit in Central Park, where he welcomes visitors every day of the week. He decides to write down his adventures in a book, which becomes James and the Giant Peach. (Chapter 39)