This is a story about a boy named James who is forced to live with his two abusive aunts
in the English countryside after his parents die to a rhinoceros.
One day, a mysterious old man presents James with a bag of tiny green crystals that have
magical powers.
However, James falls and spills the tiny green crystals near a dormant peach tree in the
yard.
The lifeless tree suddenly sprouts a peach, which begins to grow larger and larger.
His abusive aunts take notice of the giant peach and begin charging people money to see
it.
And after locking up James all day, the aunts force him to clean up after the crowds are
gone.
As James is cleaning, he discovers a tunnel leading to the middle of the giant peach.
There, he finds a group of human-sized insects: Centipede, Grasshopper, Spider, Earthworm,
Ladybug, Silkworm, and Glow-worm.
The group befriends James and attribute their giant growth to having eaten the tiny green
crystals that James had spilled.
Early the next day, the group decides to venture out by cutting the stem connecting the peach
to the tree.
The giant peach begins to roll down the hillside, killing James' two aunts in the process.
The giant peach rolls faster and faster until it lands in the ocean.
To avoid a group of vicious sharks, James attaches strings to hundreds of seagulls and
the peach is carried in the air.
As they are floating in the air, they see Cloud-Men, mystic creatures who are responsible
for the different types of weather, like rain, snow, and hail.
And as they are drifting through the clouds, the peach crashes into a rainbow and begins
to descend.
James sees that they are approaching land and the giant peach crashes on top of the
Empire State Building.
In the end, all of the insects become successful in America, and James, who has made a lot
of friends, lives in the large peach pit in Central Park.
This story urges readers to take a closer look at the world around them.
First, a closer look at nature.
There are several amazing things happening in the natural world, from photosynthesis
to the water cycle.
The book even explores the importance of each type of insect and how each of them contributes
to the well-being of the environment.
But this idea of looking closer at the world also applies to looking at other people and
how we should take the time to talk to them to get to know them.
In doing so, we can find out how they contribute to the rest of us since everyone contributes
to the world.
The author also creates a mythos of Cloud-Men to explain how different weather is created.
And what's interesting about this mythos is that it has elements that almost make it tribal,
with gods and mystics, not science, responsible for natural phenomenon.
What this does is portray the world as organic rather than mechanical.
That first, nature is controllable, and second, that nature is controlled by organic or mystic
beings.
On a more hopeful note, the underlying message of this story is that there are ways to escape
a troubling homelife.
The verbal and emotional abuse James receives is a bit over-the-top, but that might be the
reality for some kids.
How do they escape that?
And while they can't fly away on a giant peach, ultimately, this story suggests that abused
kids can find possible escapes through friends and writing.
That the power of relationships and creativity and imagination are all a person needs to
take them anywhere they want to go.