One Saturday morning, George’s parents leave him with his
grandmother. She orders him around and
never stops complaining. She tells him
he is growing too fast and he should stop.
"Whenever I see a live slug on a piece of lettuce," she says,
"I gobble it up quick before it crawls away. Delicious!" George
starts to realize that she is in fact a witch.
He formulates a plan to do something about her, and creates a new
medicine to replace the one she normally takes. He has great fun making his marvelous medicine, but he is very
alarmed when it has the effect of making his grandmother grow larger than a
house. When his parents return,
however, they are not angry. In fact,
his father is only interested in finding out the recipe for the medicine so he
can use it on his farm animals. They
try to recreate the original, but the effects are not the same—they are even
worse! This is a wonderfully funny
story, almost shocking in how much delight George experiences in causing his
wicked grandmother so much agony. As
ever with Dahl’s writing for children, his use of language is exceptional and
makes his work very distinctive. Both
children and adults should really enjoy this story. Richard Grant brings Dahl’s text alive in the unabridged
audiobook with a terrific performance.
Highly recommended.

© 2003 Christian Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College,
Long Island, and editor of Metapsychology Online Review. His main research
is on philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Children