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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSJames Henry Trotter is a miserable seven-year-old boy who, after his parents are eaten by a rhinoceros, is sent to live with his two horrible aunts, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, on a desolate hill in England. When a mysterious old man gives James a bag of magical green objects that accidentally spill into the soil beneath the garden's old peach tree, something extraordinary begins: the peach starts growing to the size of a house, and James soon discovers a tunnel leading to a hidden chamber inside, where he finds a group of oversized, talking insect creatures who have been waiting for him.
Free Battle of the Books questions for James and the Giant Peach
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about James and the Giant Peach. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book is an orphan boy sent to live with cruel aunts named Sponge and Spiker?
✓ Answer
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
After his parents die, the boy is shipped off to live with two horrible aunts on a hilltop in southern England. Aunt Sponge is fat and Aunt Spiker is bony, and together they make his life miserable.
- First half
In what book does a centipede make a boy untie twenty-one pairs of boots before bed?
✓ Answer
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Each boot has terrible complicated knots that take fingernails to unpick. By the time the boy lines up the last pair, the Centipede is already fast asleep.
- First half
In what book does a crew lasso seagulls one by one to lift their floating vessel out of the sea?
✓ Answer
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
To escape the circling sharks, the boy comes up with a clever plan to capture seagulls with silk loops and tie them to the stem. After 502 birds, the whole vessel finally lifts into the sky.
- Second half
In what book does a spider explain that her father was flushed down the bathtub plug-hole?
✓ Answer
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Miss Spider tearfully recounts that one of the cruel aunts killed her father this way. She watched the whole thing from a corner of the ceiling.
- Second half
In what book do creatures on a cloud paint a brilliant arch and then lower it with ropes?
✓ Answer
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The travelers watch as Cloud-Men splash reds, blues, greens, yellows, and purples onto a giant horseshoe shape. It turns out to be a rainbow being lowered down to earth.
- Near the end
In what book do New Yorkers mistake a hovering fruit for the biggest bomb in history?
✓ Answer
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Air-raid sirens wail across Manhattan and people flee into subways for shelter. The Mayor calls the President, who pushes aside his Sugar Crisps to summon his Generals.
