James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

James and the Giant Peach is a children's story about a boy named James who is orphanned after a giant rhino escaped from the zoo kills his parents. He then lives with his two terrible aunts who make his life miserable. James dreams of New York City, a place his father told him dreams always come true. One day, a man with magic worms tells James that all his dreams will come true with these worms. Unfortunately, the worms escape and James looses them. One worm takes over the peach tree in their yard and a peach large than a two story house grows. James takes a bite of the peach, scrawls inside, and finds bugs the size of a human being who can talk, also having eaten the peach. They make their way with the help of the giant peach to escape James' aunts and make their way to New York City and be a family.

* For a more detailed description - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_and_the_Giant_Peach

Now, why would a children's book actually be banned? Several schools have banned this book because it was deemed too frightening for children. The books itself does present some violent moments, such as James' parents being eaten by a giant rhino and the characters being attacked by monsters trying to actually kill them. Some have even said that some of the more enticing characters could be seen as sexually suggestive to the students reading them.

* For more information on the bannings and challenges of this book - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_commonly_challenged_books_in_the_United_States
* And here - http://classiclit.about.com/od/bannedliteratur1/tp/aa_bannedbooks.01.htm

Do you think that this book contains anything suggestive to children? Would the age group this book is targetted to even be able to pick up on a sexual theme if there was one? Do you think that some moments within this book are too violent for the age group?

* 5 points extra credit