George's Marvellous Medicine facts for kids
British first edition hardback
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| Author | Roald Dahl |
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| Illustrator | Quentin Blake |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape (UK hardback) Alfred Knopf (US hardback) Puffin Books (paperback) |
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Publication date
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10 January 1981 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback, Paperback) |
| Pages | 96 |
George's Marvellous Medicine (called George's Marvelous Medicine in the US) is a fun book written by the famous author Roald Dahl. Quentin Blake drew the pictures for it. It was first published in 1981. People liked its humor, but some thought the story could have been more developed. It's one of Dahl's shorter books for kids.
Roald Dahl really admired doctors and new medical discoveries. He even dedicated this book to "doctors everywhere." You can also listen to an audio version of the book, read by the actor Richard E. Grant. In 2003, the book was quite popular, ranking 134th in a BBC poll called The Big Read.
Contents
Story Summary
George's Plan
The story is about an 8-year-old boy named George Kranky. His parents go out shopping, leaving him with his grandmother. She is very bossy and mean to George. She even scares him by saying she likes to eat insects. George wonders if she might be a witch.
To get back at her for being so unkind, George decides to make a special, magic medicine. He wants to replace her usual medicine with his own amazing mix.
Collecting Ingredients
George gathers all sorts of things from around the family farm. From the bathroom, he takes deodorant and shampoo. He finds floor polish in the laundry room. In the kitchen, he adds horseradish sauce and gin.
He also collects animal medicines, engine oil, and anti-freeze from the garage. To make his medicine look like the original, he adds brown paint.
The Medicine's Effects
After mixing and cooking all the ingredients, George gives his grandmother the new medicine. She drinks it and starts to grow! She grows so tall that she bursts right through the roof of the house.
His grandmother doesn't believe George made her grow. So, he proves it by giving some medicine to one of his father's chickens. The chicken grows ten times its normal size!
Giant Animals
When George's parents come home, they are shocked to see the giant chicken and the grandmother stuck in the roof. George's father, Mr. Kranky, gets very excited. He dreams of raising huge animals to sell.
He makes George give the medicine to all the other farm animals. Soon, they all become giants too! But the grandmother starts complaining about being ignored and stuck. So, Mr. Kranky hires a crane to get her down. She is so tall that she has to sleep in the barn for a few nights.
More Attempts and a Surprise Ending
The next morning, Mr. Kranky is still thrilled about George's medicine. He wants George to make lots more to sell to farmers everywhere. This would make their family very rich.
George tries to make the medicine again, but he can't remember all the ingredients. His second try makes a chicken's legs grow super long. The third version makes a chicken's neck grow strangely long. The fourth medicine has the opposite effect, making animals shrink.
George's grandmother, still annoyed about sleeping in the barn, storms over. She complains loudly about being ignored. She sees a cup of medicine in George's hand and thinks it's tea. To George and Mrs. Kranky's horror, but Mr. Kranky's delight, she drinks the whole cup. She shrinks so much that she vanishes completely!
At first, Mrs. Kranky is shocked and sad about her mother's strange disappearance. But she soon accepts it, thinking her mother was becoming a nuisance anyway. The story ends with George thinking about what he did. He feels like he has touched a magical world.
Safety Warning
This book is very popular for reading to children. However, teachers always make sure to warn kids not to try making George's medicine at home. This is because some of the ingredients are very dangerous.
The book itself has a clear warning before the story begins: "Warning to Readers: Do not try to make George's Marvellous Medicine yourselves at home. It could be dangerous."
In 2020, some British scientists studied the potion and all 34 of its ingredients. They reported that if someone drank it, it could cause serious health problems. These include throwing up, kidney damage, and seizures. They even said the most likely outcome would be death. They wrote that "The overall outcome for Grandma would be fatal catastrophic physiological collapse." So, it's very important to remember this is just a story!
Medicine Ingredients
Here are the ingredients George used. Remember, experts strongly advise against mixing or drinking these. Doing so could be deadly.
- Toothpaste
- Golden gloss hair shampoo
- Superfoam shaving soap
- Vitamin enriched face cream
- Scarlet nail varnish
- Hair remover
- Dishworth's dandruff cure
- Brillident false teeth cleaner
- Nevermore ponking deodorant
- Liquid paraffin
- Helga's hairset
- Perfume: 'Flower's of turnips'
- Pink plaster powder
- Lipsticks
- Superwhite washing powder
- Waxwell floor polish
- Flea powder for dogs
- Canary seed
- Dark tan shoe polish
- Curry powder
- Mustard powder
- 'Extra hot' chilli sauce
- Black peppercorns
- Horseradish sauce
- Gin
- Fowl pest powder to mix with feed
- Purple pills for hoarse horses
- Thick yellowish liquid for cows
- Sheep dip
- Pig pills for swine sickness
- Engine oil
- Antifreeze
- Grease
- Dark brown gloss paint
Book's Inspiration
Roald Dahl was inspired by another famous children's book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. In Alice, there's a scene where Alice drinks a potion and grows very large. This "Drink Me" part helped inspire the scene in George's Marvellous Medicine where the grandmother drinks George's potion and grows to the size of a farmhouse.
Television Show
The actor Rik Mayall read this story for the BBC show Jackanory. His performance was very popular and well-liked.
See also
In Spanish: La maravillosa medicina de Jorge para niños
