Book #07
George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl
When George's parents are away for the day, he's tempted to do something about his tyrannical grandmother. "Something" means going round the house collecting all kinds of horrible ingredients that will make up a magic potion to make her disappear. But instead of disappearing, she gets bigger.
One of the best things about Roald Dahl is that he can take kids fantasies and turn them into wonderful stories like this one. Every child has some authoritative person in their lives who they'd like to wreak a little havoc on; George concocts a potion in order to give his ghastly grandma a little fright.
It is so cute, so funny, and so typically fantastical of Dahl. He brings so much wit and creativity to the story, it just seems so magical. I liked that everything that was put in the medicine was named; I couldn't believe half of this stuff was going in there. But it's light-hearted and wonderful; a world where real-life consequences don't come into play. What could be better?
There are lots of opinions batting around about this book. Many people think that kids shouldn't read it because of the dangerous substances George was coming into contact with, and the possible consequences of someone drinking something like this. I think kids are a lot more intelligent than people give them credit for, and if they are reminded of real-life consequences, then this book could really be an excellent one for them. It was one of my favourites growing up, and I certainly didn't try to feed anti-freeze to any of my grandparents.