James and the Giant Peach

Like in his other books, Dahl ramps up everything to the extreme. James is living an absolutely miserable lives. His parents have died and he is stuck living with his totally evil aunts. One is extremely fat. The other extremely skinny. Both treat James as their personal servant boy. Then he happens to run into somebody that gifts him some magic crystals. Alas, he drops them near the peach tree. This leads to the tree producing a giant peach as well as some bugs becoming human size. And from here the fun begins.

The "evil women" try to make money off the giant peach. They still leave James to do work. He ends up entering the peach where he discovers the giant bugs. They set off in an adventure in the peach. Alas, as the first part of the adventure, they happen to roll over the James' guardians, thereby freeing him. They tumble through the ocean, manage to get carried by birds, escape cloud men and finally land on the empire state building (where they are mistaken for alien invaders.) 

The book moves along at a fast pace. Some things don't necessarily add up, but there is enough to keep it somewhat credible. In the end, everyone (bug and human alike) live happily ever after.