How d'you feel, Mother? (George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl)

Member Name: helican

Product:	George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl
Date:	24/05/09 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: an evil grandma& a revolting recipe

Disadvantages: drags on

When young George is left to look after his foul-tempered, frightening grandmother one day he mixes together a huge panful of the nastiest, most powerful lotions & potions he can find around the farm, & gives Grandma a big spoonful at medicine time. The results are explosive & more spectacular than he ever expected, as Grandma grows until she shoots up through the roof. His mother's horrified but his father sees the potential & feeds some to his livestock to grow them to giant size. All goes to plan until they run out of medicine & try to recreate the recipe...
I love the first half of this book & the growing excitement as George collects more & more awful ingredients for the mixture, knowing that soon scary Grandma will be drinking it with unknown consequences. After she's ridden a giant horse & jumped over farm buildings though it goes downhill a bit for me: George & his dad keep altering the recipe & trying different combinations on the farm animals & it all gets a bit repetitious, & the ending is both a bit of an anticlimax & rather troubling for a young reader.

Summary: an essential book for a Dahl-lover, but not one of his best