‘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 give her instead of her usual medicine.
He finds 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 taller and taller until she is bigger than the family’s house. George then tries it out on some of the farmyard animals, and the potion brings about the same results. However, the saucepan of potion won’t last forever, and George didn’t bother to write down exactly what he put in it so George and his father set about trying to recreate the potion so that they can sell it to farmers and make their fortune. They also need to find a way to shrink Grandma [who is even more of a pain big than she was small and shrivelled up in her armchair] back to size.
My favourite part of this book has got to be George’s father’s reaction when he comes home to find his mother-in-law’s heading poking out of the top of his house. He’s far more interested in the giant chicken next to her and just tells her to shut up!
My children really enjoy this book, apart from the song which George sings just before he starts collecting his ingredients. I have given up reading that passage as it causes so much animosity!
I am always slightly disappointed by the end paragraph of this book, it seems to be to bring the book to its close before it’s quite ready. I would have liked to have seen George’s family making a fortune out of their giant animals! I also think that the ending may be a little disturbing for young children of a sensitive disposition!
This book contains black and white illustrations by Roald Dahl’s principal illustrator, Quentin Blake. The cover of the book has a colour illustration of George brewing his potion.
Our edition of ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ is a paperback and was published by Puffin books. It’s 112 pages long [we tend to read it to our boys in a couple of sittings!]. Our copy was published in 1982, but a newer edition can be purchased for a few pounds from most book shops.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Oct 13th, 2009
very helpful by (100%):
