James and the Giant Peach

March 18, 1996
Lane Smith trades stinky cheese for fantastic fruit with his black-and-white illustrations for Roald Dahl's classic 1961 novel, James and the Giant Peach. The reissue is timed to coincide with the release of the Disney animated motion picture based on Smith's suitably subversive visual interpretation.

September 8, 2003
Irons joins the parade of British stars offering renditions of Dahl's work and gives a fine presentation of one of the author's most vivid fantasy stories. A chipper pace instantly engages listeners and brings pitch-perfect nuance to Dahl's phrasing. Moving nimbly among quirky characters—James's cackling aunt, a guttural centipede or snobbish, locked-jaw grasshopper—Irons amplifies this adventure of a sweet, orphaned boy who travels afar inside a magical giant peach with a cast of gigantic but friendly insects. As with many of Dahl's books, the pure-of-heart child prevails while wicked, dimwitted adults get their due. Dahl fans, Anglophiles and even those new to audio will likely delight in these proceedings. Ages 8-up.