James and the Giant Peach

[ailbhe]

Linnea just asked me to read this, so I dropped everything and started.

I got 11 chapters - 30 pages - read before my throat hurt from all the voices. She spent most of that time in tears. Rob is reading to her now while I feed Emer and drink tea with honey.

Linnea was immensely relieved when the ladybird spoke kindly.

But when I paused, she started to cry again.

The parent death and cruelty and loneliness and hunger were too much for her, but she wanted me to keep reading. I think it gets easier after this, though; once he's in the peach I think no-one is actively cruel to him any more.

Emer was much, much less intensely affected.

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

The aunts are killed. As I remember it, for myself, I was quite pleased at that. Not all children react that way, but I did.

[1ngi.livejournal.com]

I was very moved to read this post. James and the Giant Peach is the first book I can actually remember my Mum reading to me. I think I was a similar age as Linnea.

[wingedkami.livejournal.com]

Things go pretty well for James from the Aunt-squashing onwards.

It's amazingly easy to forget just how horrific a lot of Dahl's stories are. The only one that really scared me though was The Witches. I blame Quentin Blake's illustration of the Grand High Witch sans mask for that.

[sfred]

This reminds me of when my mother had to (temporarily) confiscate 'Heidi's Children' because I was so horribly distressed by it.