I love the consequences of bad actions!

Another Roald Dahl classic that I have never read! This one was much lighter than The Twits but just as messed up. I love how Dahl plays with societal expectations in these books, despite them being for kids. George is stuck home alone with Grandma, and Grandma is a pretty big jerk. She’s overly mean to a child, incredibly demanding, and cranky as hell. She also needs to take medicine every day at a specific time. George knows this and decides to mix some things to give to Grandma in the hopes that it will cure her grumpiness, except it turns her into a giant. Immediately George’s father tries to figure out how to monetize George’s creation into making bigger farm animals and bottling his concoction to sell, rather than having any interest in saving his mother-in-law. Oh, the commentary there. This ends a lot darker than I was expecting (though I need to start expecting this more with Dahl), but I adore that there are significant consequences for bad people and bad attitudes in this. Very much a ‘don’t do this, but you can find the joy in it’ style of book, and I’m now a huge fan.

Title: George’s Marvelous Medicine
Author: Roald Dahl
Format: Paperback
Pages: 128
ISBN: 9780141346403

Three Descriptors: Silly, Suspenseful, Fanciful

Read Alikes:
Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel
Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
The Legend of Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer
Wilf the Mighty Worrier Saves the World by Georgia Pritchett
Toilet Paper Mummy by Michael Rex