?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 ...
Advantages: Great re take on a well known tale Disadvantages: None
George and the Dragon
An amusing spin off from the story of George and the Dragon as we know it?ie knight with sword killing a dragon. This book, however does indeed have a scary dragon, but the hero, far from being a knight in shining armour, is a mouse called George.
~~Story and Illustrations~~
The scene is set as we enter a landscape of high and rocky mountains and move into a "deep, deep valley in a dark dark cave"" (ooh!! The suspense). In this dark cave, lives a mighty dragon. Yes, he is big and very red. So big, in fact, that he takes up a whole double page spread, and there he stands amongst the rubble, blowing smoke from his nostrils. This mighty dragon can fly higher than the clouds and faster than the birds. He can burn down forests and smash castle walls and with a brush of his wing, he can foil and destroy whole ...
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 merely contain the colourful characters bursting to get out. The 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 ...
