James and the Giant Peach
Lexile Level: 790L
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl tells the story about a boy named James that lives with two unkind aunts. James meets a mysterious old man who gives him a magical gift. He ends up on an adventure inside of a giant peach where he makes friends with several talking insects with interesting personalities. This book is enjoyed by students because of the magical and unpredictable story. Teachers could use this book to teach vocabulary words in context and to teach lessons on figurative versus literal language as the book features wonderful descriptive writing. This book could be used to teach writing lessons as it could show students an example of descriptive writing. Teachers could assign this book to upper elementary students to use in a literature circle. Students would be able to read the text separately before discussing it with their peers.
