... George's family have a farm and there are no friends around to play with at weekends. When his mum goes shopping one Saturday morning, George is left alone with his obnoxious Grandma.
It would be hard to have any feelings of tenderness for George's Grandma. She moans constantly and never ... Read review
Advantages: Imaginative and great fun Disadvantages: Might give naughty children ideas...
...Roald Dahl's hero, eight-year-old George. George's family have a farm and there are no friends around to play with at weekends. When his mum goes shopping one Saturday morning, George is left alone with his obnoxious Grandma.
It would be hard to have any feelings of tenderness for George's Grandma. She moans constantly and never has a smile or a kind word for George. Even when he makes her a cup of tea, she grumbles about the sugar and ... ...in the forbidden medicine cupboard. George's Marvellous Medicine contains everything from shampoo to floor polish to canary seed. Even the shed and the garage are raided for anything from sheepdip to engine oil. George cooks it all up on the stove and finds himself chanting a magical verse.
The time comes for Grandma to have her spoonful. As soon as she swallows it, she shoots up out of her chair and then comes straight back down again. ... more
Any child who has been left to the tender mercies of a difficult elderly relative will immediately identify with Roald Dahl's hero, eight-year-old George. George's family have a farm and there are no friends around to play with at weekends. When his mum goes shopping one Saturday morning, George is left alone with his obnoxious Grandma.
It would be hard to have any feelings of tenderness for George's Grandma. She moans constantly and never has a smile or a kind word for George. Even when he makes her a cup of tea, she grumbles about the sugar and makes a fuss about having a saucer and a teaspoon, even though George has already stirred the tea for her. After criticizing George for growing too fast, she scares the living daylights out of him by suggesting she has magic powers that could make his fingernails drop off and teeth grow there instead.
George rushes off and shuts himself in the kitchen to plan what he might do to 'shake the old woman up a bit'. He has a wonderful idea. He is due to give Grandma a spoonful of her medicine at eleven o'clock, and he decides to concoct a magic medicine to replace her usual one. George bursts into poetry as he hatches his plan. He goes from room to room in the house with a large saucepan, emptying in all the lotions and potions he can lay his hands on, with the exception of those in the forbidden medicine cupboard. George's Marvellous Medicine contains everything from shampoo to floor polish to canary seed. Even the shed and the garage are raided for anything from sheepdip to engine oil. George cooks it all up on the stove and finds himself chanting a magical verse.
The time comes for Grandma to have her spoonful. As soon as she swallows it, she shoots up out of her chair and then comes straight back down again. When she complains that she is on fire, George pours water down her throat. Strange things happen after this, and Grandma ends up several times her normal height with her head sticking up through the roof of the house.
Most boys would be in terrible trouble for causing such commotion but George's dad, being a farmer, wonders if he can use the medicine on his animals to make them super sized too. There might be a problem, however: will George be able to remember exactly what ingredients and in what quantities were in his original Marvellous Medicine? If not, might the medicine have different consequences?
Roald Dahl has created a fantastic tale in 'George's Marvellous Medicine'. Any reader will feel revulsion towards the nasty piece of work that is George's Grandma, and children in particular will sympathize with George's plight at the outset and cheer him on as he concocts his weird and wonderful mixture. Descriptive language and imaginative ideas will delight and entertain readers young and old.
As always, Quentin Blake's illustrations make a distinctive contribution to 'George's Marvellous Medicine'. Grandma certainly resembles a witch, and we see her aghast as she shoots out of her chair, then deformed in various ways as the medicine works its magic. Little George is sketched in the simplest of ways, yet his expression conveys immediately his feelings at different points in the story, whether scared, delighted or amazed.
'George's Marvellous Medicine' is just over a hundred pages long, but the text is set in a large font and there are so many illustrations that the book will not be daunting for a young independent reader. The sentences are on the whole quite short, and there is a fair amount of dialogue to keep a child interested. The longest chapter is about twelve pages, but even then progress is fast because of the number of illustrations.
This is not a story that has to wait until a child is old enough to read it alone, of course. It is a wonderful one to be shared between parents (or grandparents) and their children as a read-aloud book. As it was first published in 1981, some parents may remember it from their own childhood; if not, it will be a hilarious discovery for two generations at a time.
There is, it should be noted, a word of caution at the beginning of the story, warning readers that they should not attempt to concoct George's Marvellous Medicine at home!
George's Marvellous Medicine Roald Dahl Puffin Books Paperback, 128 pages ISBN 014132273X Price £5.99 (Amazon £3.89)
Advantages: Funny funny funny. Naughtiness gets its just deserts. Disadvantages: I truly can't think of any.
George's grandmother is a grizzly old grunion. George dreads being left alone with her when his mother goes shopping on a Saturday morning and if you knew his grandmother you really wouldn't blame him. She does nothing but criticise and get him into trouble by telling tales on him to his parents. Half the tales aren't even true. George lives miles from anywhere, on a farm, and he hasn't many other children to play with. This makes it even worse when ... ...the living room and into George's bedroom, then through that ceiling and into the attic, and finally and most fantastically of all Grandma's head crashes right through the roof of the house. George watches in wonder. He tries the medicine on a chicken in the farmyard and it grows as big as a cow. Then he tries it to similar effect with the pig, the bullocks, the sheep, the pony and the nanny goat. When Mr Kranky, George's father, comes home he goes ...
jillmurphy 05.12.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl
Advantages: Fun for small children Disadvantages: Lacked a certain sparkle that other Dahl books have
An extract for George’s Marvellous Medicine was in a Roald Dahl Anthology that I was privileged to own when I was younger and was one of the things within it that I really liked reading. Because of this I was quite pleased when I discovered that my brother had the book in his Roald Dahl box set. The book is like most of Roald Dahl’s offerings rather simple and easy to read. The story is rather vibrant and entertaining and the covers of the book can ... ...book itself was first published in 1981 and is not too long a read, coming in at 104 pages long in my copy, which is a Puffin edition, published in 2001. Despite saying that this book is 104 pages in length, not all of these pages contain writing and some contain only a minimal amount, as the story is accompanied by some superb sketches by Quentin Blake that lift the words off the page and bring the entire tale to life. They allow the adventure being ...
MI9to5 05.03.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl
‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ was the first of Roald Dahl’s stories which we read to our eldest son. It’s the story of a little boy who has a real stinker of a grandmother. She’s rude and scary and bosses him around all the time. One day George’s mum and dad have both gone out, leaving him alone with his Grandma. George has had enough of Grandma bullying him and so decides to cure her of her cantankerous behaviour with a special potion, which he’ll ... ...an enormous saucepan in the kitchen and lugs it all around the house, essentially putting in a bit of everything he finds [lipsticks and canary seed included!]. He even makes sure he adds some brown paint so that it is the same colour as Grandma’s real medicine! He then boils it up to make sure that everything’s nicely mixed together before serving it to his unsuspecting Grandma! The ‘medicine’ has quite alarming results and Grandma ends up growing ...
princesslaura 13.10.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl
Advantages: Hilarious! Disadvantages: Could turn you off eating celery for life.
** Warning to Grandmothers **
If you are a grandmother and kind, you have nothing to fear from this book. If your behaviour towards your grandchildren is terrible, and you think they may have read this book, be afraid! Do not eat or drink anything that they have been near. That is my warning.
There is also a warning printed opposite the start of the first chapter which is:
“WARNING TO READERS: Do not try to make George’s Marvellous Medicine yourselves ... ...Why I Read This Book **
My young friend, who has just had his 7th birthday, is working his way through the Roald Dahl Puffin Paperbacks. He has learnt that I am a good person to help him read them, as I enjoy them as much as he does. Some paragraphs, with words he is familiar with, he reads to me, but when he starts to get frustrated by the amount of new words, I say it is my turn to read to him. We change back again for parts I think he can cope ...
luckyarchers 26.02.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl
Advantages: The entire book! Disadvantages: Absolutely nothing!
...so here's the first!!
GEORGE'S MARVELLOUS MEDICINE
George is an average small boy, who lives on a farm, miles from any signs of civilisation, with his mother, father and disgusting old grandmother.
One day George is told that his mother has to shopping and that George has to look after Grandma. George must give Grandma her medicine at 11.00. It's a horrid brown medicine in a bottle on the shelf.
Now you might wonder why I've just said "disgusting ... ...books that he has done, George's Marvellous Medicine is my favourite. I have nearly every Roald Dahl book he's ever written. Roald Dahl is a very easy author to spot and not just by his stories. The pictures that come with the books are very distinctive and when ever I see a drawing of that style, I know that it's a Roald Dahl book. The artist behind the drawings is the very talented Quentin Blake, who I think has made his name by doing the drawings ...
LR_17 24.06.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl
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Advantages: Its a really funny book to read Disadvantages: Gives children ideas
This for me is an all time favourite of mine. RoaldDahl captures the life of a young boy who gets stuck looking after his gramdma who is a witchy person and never does anything for herself apart from sit in her chair by the window all day ordering people around.she orders George aound so much till he is sick to the back teeth of her and plans to get some form of revenge on her, when she asks him to make her a cup of tea he goes into the kitchen and gets the biggest saucepan he can find and he goes around the house throwing all different hair products into it, paint, chemicals, pet food, u name it and hes got it in the pan. he then boils it all up and pours it into his grandmas medicine bottle and gives her her daily doesage....within seconds things start to happen that you would expect to happen.
the story lone is fantasic and i love ...
Advantages: Humorous, intelligent, odd, quirky. Disadvantages: Creepy, no sense of law
When I was younger, I used to be a huge fan of RoaldDahl, although I could never for the life of me spell his name right. Each of his books has such an imaginitive yet realistic quality to it, you cannot help but wonder if the stories are real or not.
Within George's MarvellousMedicine, we see the main character of George collected ingredients to use for a revenge potion to be replaced with the one which his Grandmother will drink. What George hopes to achieve I am not entirely sure, it could well be that George is a serial killer, and is simply trying to top-off his old Gran to get her will, or something of the sort. We learn soon off that George's Gran is not in fact a nice, kind, granny, but rather more the cruel, evil sort that you don't come across very often.
The story continues with Georges Gran growing to absurd heights ...
George lived on a farm miles away from anywhere so there were never any children to play with. He had the companion of pigs, hens, cows, sheep and... his grandmother.
George's grandmother was unlike other lovely, kind and helpful grandmothers. His was a 'complaining, grousing, grouching (and) grumbling' one and was extremely stubborn extremely. George hated her with all his might. But day after day, he had to give her her medicine, at eleven o'clock.
One day, whilst his parents was out, he developed a 'marvellous' plan. He would 'make her a new medicine, one that is so strong and so fierce and so fantastic it will either cure her completely or blow off the top of her head.' It was to be a magic medicine.
In it he was going to put EVERYTHING he could possibly find. He toured the house, going to the washroom, laundry ...
Product Information for "George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl" »
Product details
Type
Fiction
Genre
Children's
Title
George's Marvellous Medicine
Author
Roald Dahl
ISBN
014132273X; 0224019015; 0224064908
Manufacturer's product description
This title presents a complete and unabridged recording of this classic Dahl tale, read by Richard E. Grant. George's grandma has some very odd views. In fact, she's not a very nice person at all. She thinks caterpillars and slugs are delicious and likes to crunch on beetles best of all. George can do nothing right in Grandma's eyes, so when its time for her medicine, he decided to give her a dose of his own special brew.
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