Chapter 1 introduces the reader to James, Aunt Sponge, and Aunt Spiker. At four years-old, James lived with his parents in a wonderful house along the sea, until his parents were eaten by a rhinoceros during a day trip to London. Soon after his parents' death, James was sent to live with his aunts, bringing nothing with him but a pair of pajamas and a toothbrush. Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker forced James to perform back-breaking labor, locked him up for punishment, and never let him leave the confines of their house and garden. From the top of the hill that the house was perched on, James could see woods, fields, and sometimes his former house. There was little for James to do in the house or garden, and the only thing that remained on Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker's unpleasant property was an ancient peach tree that never grew peaches.

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Chapter 2 is set three years after James began living with his aunts, on a day when rather peculiar, very peculiar, and fantastically peculiar moments occur. James' two aunts watch him while he chops wood in the heat, each of them bragging loudly about her own beauty, complimenting her own eyes, hair, clothing, and other bodily features through rhyme. While James chops wood, he thinks of other children in the world and envies their happiness. At one moment, he is overwhelmed by his thoughts and begins to cry. When his aunts begin to yell at him, he begs them to set aside a day to take him to the beach. Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge threaten to beat James, and James runs away to a corner of the garden and begins to cry hysterically.

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In Chapter 3, James is crying in the corner of the garden when an Old Man appears from behind the bushes. This is a small Old Man who rests on his cane for support, and he calls James to come closer to him. When James moves towards the man, the old man reveals a small white paper bag filled with tiny green things that resemble crystals, each one about the size of a grain of rice. Soon James sees that the tiny green crystals are moving, and the Old Man tells James that these little items had "more power and magic...than the rest of the world put together." When James asks what the items are, the Old Man responds that they are "crocodile tongues boiled up in the skull of a dead witch for 20 days with the eyeballs of a lizard." After this brief yet confusing explanation, the Old Man gives the bag to James and tells James that the items are now his.

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In Chapter 4, the Old Man gives James special instructions for using the moving magic crystals. James must pour the little green things into a large jug of water and then add 10 of his own hairs to the mixture, one by one. As soon as the mixture begins to boil, James is to drink it down, and then magical things will begin to happen to him. He will no longer be miserable. The Old Man gives one last instruction before he leaves James - don't let the green things escape, or else they will work their magic upon somebody else instead!

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In Chapter 5, James excitedly runs off with the bag and makes a plan to create the mixture in the kitchen, in secret from his aunts. In his rush to get to the kitchen unnoticed, James trips on the roots of the ancient peach tree and the bag breaks. The tiny green things land on the ground and, as James frantically tries to gather the crystals, they sink into the ground and burrow into the soil. Devastated, James feels that all of his luck has been lost. His aunts come over to him and yell at him for being lazy, threatening to punish him by making him sleep in the water bucket to the well. He is instructed to continue chopping wood immediately, when all of a sudden he hears a shout that makes him stop and turn.

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At the beginning of Chapter 6, Aunt Spiker shouts to Aunt Sponge that a peach is growing on the once-barren tree. Aunt Sponge is shocked. James puts down his yard tools and walks up to his aunts; he has a feeling that something peculiar is going to happen. His aunts want to eat the peach, splitting it half-and-half, and they ask James to climb the tree to the tallest branch and get the peach down for them. When James reaches the top, his aunts yell at him to not eat any of the peach before he brings it down. But just before James reaches the peach, both of his aunts shout out that the peach is growing! In no time at all, it has doubled in size.

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In Chapter 7, the peach begins to grow uncontrollably. James and his aunts all watch as it continues to grow, assuming that the now-huge fruit will break the branch and fall to the ground. The branch does not break, however, and the peach soon settles on the ground and stops growing. At this point it is the size of a small house and is perfectly ripe. James's aunts look at the beautiful peach and (at Aunt Spiker's prompting) decide there is money to be made from this strange sight.

 

In Chapter 8, news of a peach as large as a house spreads across the nation, and Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker capitalize on the opportunity for publicity. They build a fence around the peach and charge 1 shilling per person for admission to see the peach, double if the visitor brings along a camera. While his aunts are busy making money, James is forced to stay inside his room and simply watch. Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge even become so busy counting their money that they forget to feed James. What makes the situation even sadder is that James desperately wants to go outside and play with the children who come to see the peach, since he hadn't met another child in several years.

 

Chapter 9 opens with James staring out at the peach in the middle of the night, longing to go out and touch it. He makes his way outside, where the shadows dance around him, and he is tense with fear as he stares at the peach. It looks like a tremendous silver ball, and James, despite his apprehension, walks towards it, ready to finally feel it. As he walks, James has a feeling that something spectacular is about to happen. The garden is alive with magic. As he places his hand and cheek on the soft fuzz of the peach, he looks down at the ground - there is a hole in the peach.

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James excitedly decides to explore the hole in Chapter 10 - but as he crawls in, he realizes this isn't a hole, but a tunnel! He begins to crawl along the soggy floor of the peach, inhaling the sweet smell of the fruit and tasting the juice as it falls from the ceiling of the tunnel. He crawls uphill, and seems to be approaching the center of the fruit. Suddenly he hits his head on a hard surface, which appears to be a wall at first. Upon closer examination, James realizes the grooved and waxy "wall" is actually the pit of the peach. Within the pit is a small door, and James opens it and crawls in. He is greeted by voices: "Look who's here! We've been waiting for you!" As he looks up and identifies the speakers, he is horrified and turns white. He tries to turn around and exit, but nothing but a solid brown wall is now behind him.

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In Chapter 11, James becomes acquainted with the creatures who had startled him at the end of Chapter 10. As he gazes around the interior of the peach, he sees a collection of insects: a grasshopper, spider, ladybug, centipede, and an earthworm. But were they really insects? James had thought insects were small, but these insects are very large - the grasshopper alone is as large as a large dog. As James regards them with fright, the creatures begin to discuss how hungry they are. They seem to focus ominously on James. They ask him if he is hungry, but he is too scared to offer a response. Suddenly, the creatures realize that James is afraid that they want to eat him. They laugh uproariously at the idea, assuring James that he is one of them now and that they've been waiting for him all day.

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In Chapter 12, James lends assistance to one of his new acquaintances; he helps the Centipede remove his boots before bed. The Centipede tells James that they will have to remove 100 shoes, but the others creatures, particularly the Earthworm, insist that the Centipede is constantly lying and only has 42 legs. As James helps remove the boots, he listens to the creatures bicker with one another. The Earthworm believes that no legs is a superior mode of life, while the Centipede insists that more legs are better; this one creature is also very proud of the fact that he is a pest. The Old-Green-Grasshopper tries to moderate the conversation, telling the others to calm down. Throughout all of this, James concludes he likes the good-humored Centipede, despite the Centipede's demanding ways; it is very nice to hear laughter after so many years of life under Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. The Centipede then begins to tell James the story of how he became such a marvelously large centipede. He was going about his business in the garden under the peach tree, when suddenly a little green thing wiggled past his nose. Other insects - the Ladybug, Miss Spider, and the Old-Green-Grasshopper - also claim that they saw the same thing, and James exclaims that he knows what it was: the magic items. The creatures all say that they ate one, two, or three of the green creatures, and as they are about to complete the story, the Old-Green-Grasshopper urges them to get ready for bed because they have a long day ahead of them the next day.

 

In Chapter 13, Miss Spider gets to work preparing beds for everyone, which she accomplishes by spinning hammocks out of silk. James continues to work on Centipede's boots for two hours, and by the time he finishes Centipede has fallen asleep. James must wake the Centipede up so that he, the Centipede, can go to bed in his hammock. As James settles down in his comfortable sleeping position, the Centipede yells "Lights out!" to an unnamed person. James looks up and sees that The Centipede is addressing a Glow-worm, who is attached to the ceiling and has fallen asleep with her light on. Centipede rudely wakes her, and she turns off her light. As James prepares to go to bed, he realizes how much he likes his new friends. They are not as terrible as they had once looked, and they are actually incredibly kind and helpful.

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James wakes to a series of shouts proclaiming, "We're off!" at the start of Chapter 14. All of the creatures are moving around excitedly, and it seems as if there were an earthquake taking place. The Ladybug, a kind and gentle creature, explains to James that they are about to depart forever from the hillside where Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker live. The Centipede is even on top of the peach, using his sharp jaws to cut away the stem attaching the peach to the tree in the garden - even though no one knows exactly where the peach will go once released. Soon the peach is free and begins rolling down the hill, and the furniture, creatures, and James are all slammed against the walls by the momentum.

 

In Chapter 15, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker are preparing for the next batch of tourists who have come to see the peach. After a brief discussion about where James went last night - both of them hoping that James was seriously injured during his night away from the house - the two women discuss how they are going to make a fortune. Suddenly they hear an alarming sound. It's the peach! It is rolling down the hill, quickly gathering speed, and the two aunts try desperately to get out of its way. Yet Aunt Sponge trips over the box she brought to collect the money, and Aunt Spiker trips over Aunt Sponge. Before they can get up, the peach rolls over them and with a crunch, both of James' aunts are laid out lifeless on the hillside.

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In Chapter 16, the peach continues to gather speed and momentum. It rushes straight past the people walking up the hill to see it, and everyone begins diving left or right in order to avoid getting squashed. It rolls across fields, roads, and towns, taking down anything that is in its way. At one point it breaks through a chocolate factory, leaving two holes in the building, and chocolate flows out of the factory and into the streets. Children began swimming in the chocolate and try to eat it, but the peach just keeps rolling. Suddenly the peach approaches the sea where James used to live, the sea that he wanted to visit the other day; there is a line of steep, famous cliffs facing the shore. The sea is described as very dangerous, and it appears that there is no hope for James and his new friends as they plummet off a cliff and into the water. The peach is submerged but then floats back to the top, sitting easily on the surface of the sea.

 

James, Centipede, Earthworm, Miss Spider, Ladybug, Glow-worm, and Old Green Grasshopper are recovering from the rough-and-tumble trip from the garden to the sea as Chapter 17 opens. They had been flung back and forth, and now they are tangled up with one another. They begin to sort everything out with the help of the Glow-worm's light, then start to speculate about where they could have landed. They eventually decide to go to the top of the peach and look around, a much safer alternative than going out the side entrance, since they don't know where they are. Miss Spider busies herself with weaving a ladder from the floor of the peach to the roof, and the others assist Centipede as he puts on his 42 shoes. When the shoes are on and the ladder is finished, they all climb to the roof, excited about what they might see next.

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In Chapter 18, everyone is shocked to find that they are in the middle of the sea. The Earthworm proclaims that they are all finished, destined to drown, at least until James explains the peach is actually floating. Although the Old-Green-Grasshopper maintains that everything will be fine in the end, Earthworm tries to upset the others by insisting they are still in a bad situation - they have no food. James interrupts again by explaining that the entire ship is food - they can gradually eat the peach, and they will have no problem surviving for weeks and weeks without destroying the peach as a vessel. Earthworm, very flustered, now says that the problem is that there is no problem! The others joke with him that he is always looking for something to complain about.

James and the creatures all begin to eat the peach, and find that it is simply delicious. Many of them say that it is the most delicious thing they've ever tasted, and Centipede bursts into song. He details all of the delicious things that he has eaten in the course of his life, concluding that this peach is the best of them all. Everyone is joyous and content.

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Everyone has just finished their meal when, at the start of Chapter 19, Centipede spots "black things" gliding through the water. Earthworm identifies these black shapes as sharks, and while the others silently agree, they are too afraid to admit it themselves. The characters try to create a false sense of security by saying they are safe if they stay atop the peach, but suddenly the sharks begin to attack the peach by eating chunks of it. Desperate, the creatures call out to James and beg him to think of a way out of the disaster.

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In Chapter 20, James announces that he might have an idea of how to escape the sharks, but he is not sure if it will work - he needs string. Assuming that there is no strong onboard, he believes his plan destined to fail, but the creatures reveal that Silkworm is actually below; James just hasn't seen her yet. Both Silkworm and Miss Spider are capable of spinning as much string as James needs. He tells them more about the plan, and reveals that he is going to lure seagulls towards the peach with Earthworm, then loop strings around the seagulls' necks and tie the strings to the stem of the peach. If he can do this with hundreds of seagulls, James believes that the birds will lift the peach up into the air with the power of their wings. The others believe that the plan is crazy, and Earthworm is appalled that he is going to be offered as bait. It takes some effort for James to get his point across, but finally at the end of the chapter he quiets his friends' doubts and explains that the Earthworm doesn't need to die (since he can easily be pulled out of danger) in order for the plan to be successful.

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Everyone congratulates James on his terrific plan in Chapter 21. James also comforts Earthworm and assures him that he will not be pecked to death - James will be watching him the entire time. Time is of the essence, as the passengers observe 90 to 100 sharks attacking the peach from all sides. James orders everyone to their stations, and it is clear that he is the captain now. Everyone is ready to listen to whatever he tells them.

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In Chapter 22, James' plan is ready to be put into action. Half of Earthworm's body is perched atop the peach, with James hidden just below the surface, waiting for the first seagull. The other creatures are down below in the peach, ready to pull the Earthworm down as soon as James gave the cue. James also holds a string of silk in his hands, and when the first seagull comes in to eat Earthworm, James calls for the others to pull Earthworm down and loops the silk around the seagull's neck. James and his companions continue this process over and over again. Slowly they put silk ropes around the necks of 500 seagulls, but the peach still has not risen out of the water. Yet the sharks can anticipate that they are about to lose their prey, and they begin attacking more ferociously. Everyone can feel the peach slowly sinking into the sea. Silkworm and Miss Spider are not convinced that they can produce any more silk, but James urges them to keep trying. They manage enough to rope in a 501st seagull, and as James ties the silk around the gull's neck the peach lurches upwards, but the escape isn't yet assured. With the 502nd seagull, the peach takes off towards the heavens like a balloon.

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In Chapter 23, everyone celebrates and dances as the peach flies into the air, safe from the sharks. Miss Spider volunteers to inspect the damage from the sharks, and when she returns she reports that there is barely any damage at all. None of the characters believes this, thinking that some sort of magic must have healed the peach, but the narrator briefly interrupts the story and explains that sharks have difficulty biting into large, round objects because of their protruding noses.

Then, the companions see a ship sailing below them, the Queen Mary, sailing to America. From the ship, the Captain and the rest of the crew can see a giant round ball hovering overhead, and they mistake it for a secret weapon. Using binoculars, the Captain reports that a boy in trousers, a giant ladybug, a colossal green grasshopper, a mammoth spider, and an enormous centipede are on the top of the peach. His crew begins to think he is crazy, and they call for the ship doctor to inspect him. Just then, the peach passes behind a cloud and the crew never sees the giant sphere again.

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Everyone on the peach is very happy as, in Chapter 24, the seagulls carry the peach further and further into the sky. The Old-Green-Grasshopper offers to play music for everyone, and he uses his body as a musical instrument. Everyone loves the music, and James is incredibly surprised at what a talented musician the grasshopper is.

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Then, in Chapter 25, James and his friends begin to learn more about one another. James learns that earthworms process all of the soil in all of the fields, that ladybugs are bought in bulk to help farms succeed, and that Miss Spider is frustrated with the public's dislike of her species. James also learns that the Centipede is widely considered a pest by society.

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In Chapter 26, the Centipede begins singing and dancing so vigorously that he falls off the edge of the peach. Everyone is startled to see him tumble farther and farther down, and everyone believes that they will never see the poor Centipede again. Yet James jumps to action and orders Silkworm to begin spinning, even though she is tired; he then takes Silkworm's rope and leaps down to rescue Centipede. Before he leaves the peach, James instructs his friends to begin pulling on the rope when they feel three tugs. Soon James is gone, and the others believe that both James and the Centipede have been lost forever, when suddenly they feel three tugs and pull the two of them up. They are both soaking wet, and Centipede tells everyone that James swam around the ocean until he found and rescued him. Old-Green-Grasshopper informs the other passengers that the peach has continued to ascend, and Miss Spider suggests moving downstairs. Yet Old-Green-Grasshopper believes it would be best for everyone to stay up top and keep watch, and that is exactly what they decide to do.

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In Chapter 27, the passengers on the peach take note of everything around them as they float higher into the sky. As they go up, they see strange, tall, wispy white things that look like they are made of cotton-wool and candy floss and thin white hairs. Everyone is a little nervous when they first see these shapes and the passengers try to hide and keep quiet, but James and his companions soon realize that the mysterious wispy things - identified as the Cloud-Men - are making hailstones and showering them onto the world them, in practice for the winter.

Suddenly, the raucous Centipede begins taunting the Cloud-Men, even though the others try to quiet him. The effect of his yelling is immediate: the Cloud-Men launch an attack on the peach. They begin throwing hailstones and James instructs everyone to lie down. All of them can hear the hailstones whipping past their heads and smashing into the peach. The projectiles also hit Ladybug on her shell and Centipede on the nose. James instructs everyone to dive into the tunnel to avoid further injury. When they try to light the space, they realize that Glow-worm's light has been broken. Fortunately, the noise of the hailstones ceases and they all climb back up the tunnel. Now, James and his friends discover that there are no more Cloud-Men in the area.

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At the beginning of Chapter 31, Ladybug realizes that the seagulls have started to fly faster and faster. They are moving quickly through the air, and as the peach pursues its course, James and his companions are exposed to more of the Cloud-Men's realm. They see where the Cloud-Men eat, sleep, play, and conduct their family lives. James and his companions also learn more about how the Cloud-Men orchestrate specific natural phenomena, such as cyclones, tornadoes, and blizzards.

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Chapter 32 brings the dawn, and Centipede shouts that he sees land below. The passengers all peer over the side of the peach and look down at the world below, commenting on how enormous it all seems. The cars look like ants, and giant buildings are visible. Based off of their previous experiences, the passengers don't believe that they are looking at England. When James sees a skyscraper, he shouts that they must be in America - they have crossed the Atlantic Ocean overnight!

James and his friends then start to think about how they will make their way back down to earth. James has the idea of gradually cutting the seagull strings that have kept the peach in the air. He believes that if the strings are cut one-by-one, there will be a calm and controlled descent to the ground.

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In Chapter 33, pandemonium begins to break out down below, in New York City. The people believe that the hovering peach is the biggest bomb in the history of the world, and they think it's poised to explode at any given moment. The mayor of New York calls the President of the United States, who summons his admirals and generals. Across the nation, everyone becomes worried that death is near.

 

Back up above, James instructs Centipede to cut one of the strings attached to the seagulls, which Centipede does at the start of Chapter 34. Centipede then moves along from string to string, but the peach doesn't seem to be sinking much. Although the other passengers are confused, James reminds them that they had lost a lot of juice during the hailstone attack earlier in the night - now the giant fruit is much lighter. When the peach begins sinking at a slow, gradual pace, James instructs Centipede to stop.

The companions are all content with their plan to reach the ground, when all of a sudden an airplane makes a tremendous zooming noise above them. They look up and realize that the airplane has cut through the remaining seagull ropes, and suddenly the peach is falling at an alarming rate. The creatures begin to panic, and everyone turns to James for help, but this time James has no answers. He only tells his friends to shut their eyes and wait for the inevitable - death.

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In the very brief Chapter 35, the peach is plummeting to the earth. James and his friends cling frantically to the peach, convinced that they are doomed. They believe that the peach will splatter on the ground and explode instantly. From below, the people of New York City are shocked to see the biggest bomb in the world fall out of the sky. In their fright and terror, many of the pedestrians begin to pray.

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n Chapter 36, James has accepted what he believes to be his impending death, and he begins saying goodbye to his newfound friends. He is looking down at the skyscrapers below him, some of which have flat tops and others of which have pointed tops, and he believes that death is imminent. Yet the peach is falling directly above the pointed top of the Empire State Building, and within a moment the peach has struck the building. The pointed top of this skyscraper drives right through the peach, making a squelching sound.

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The people of New York City spend Chapter 37 attempting to make sense of the object on top of the Empire State Building. They are now aware that this strange object isn't a bomb, but they still have no idea that it is a peach. Policemen hold their guns at the ready and call for the inhabitants of the object to show themselves. When Centipede, Old-Green-Grasshopper, and Miss Spider emerge, everyone is terrified and many speculate that the peach has come from Mars.

The police officers have no idea what the correct course of action is. Many of them even faint because because they are so fearful of the creatures inside of the peach. They feel pressure from the crowd to take action, but they still don't know what to do. All at once, James emerges from the peach. The crowd is shocked that a young boy had been inside all along. James calls out to the people and tells them not to be afraid, but the people of New York are still wary of the creatures that accompany James.

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Breaking into song, James explains that all his companions are harmless and friendly. He begins with Centipede, describing his sweet and gentle soul, and then he moves on to describe Earthworm and the many ways that his species has been helpful to humans. As for Old-Green-Grasshopper, James sings his praises of the Grasshopper's musical abilities. James then praises Glow-worm's cleverness and her ability to provide light. He also sings a verse about Miss Spider, urging the audience to never kill a spider. James goes on to compliment Ladybug's beautiful and kind nature and Silkworm's high-quality silk.

Just five minutes later, James finds himself telling his story to a group of officials; these officials quickly come to regard the passengers of the peach as a group of heroes! They Mayor insists on having a ticker-tape parade for all of them. James and his friends sit in an open limousine, and the peach, hoisted up by giant cranes and placed on a huge truck, follows its onetime crew. Peach juice leaks from the hole where the Empire State Building had pierced through, and the mayor's limousine skids along behind.

While the procession is underway, a young girl runs up to James and asks if she can have a piece of the marvelous peach, and James responds that yes, everyone can have some. Thousands of children jump all over the peach and began eating away. They come from all directions, all savoring the delicious taste of the giant fruit. James, who had believed there couldn't possibly be this many children in the world, is ecstatic, and he believes that this of joyful children is the most wonderful thing in the world. By the end of the parade, the peach has been completely eaten, and only the brown stone in the middle remains.

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The journey ends here, but the travelers all live on and become rich and successful. Each of James's friends finds a respected, prominent job that suits his or her talents and interests. And the peach stone is set up as a famous monument in New York City, but it is not only a monument - it is a famous house, too. James goes to live inside this house, and anyone can knock on his door and ask to be shown around. Sometimes one of James' friends comes to visit, and tourists can talk with these other passengers of the peach. Hundreds of children come to the house every week, and they always ask James to tell them his story. They ask him so many times that James decides it would be a good idea to write a book, and he does. As Dahl's final line explains, the book that James wrote is the book that the reader has just read.

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​Chapters 31-39 Vocabulary

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enthralled - captivated, charmed

cautiously - carefully

sinister  -  ominous (something bad or threatening)

melancholy - gloomy, depressing

summon  -  to call for the presence of (to call someone or something to come to you)

plummeted - plunged downward

stupor - daze from shock

pinnacle - the highest point

eccentricity - oddity, peculiarity

flabbergasted - bewildered, astounded (so surprised can not speak)

procession - parade

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