Having finished a number of Roald Dahl‘s longer works of fiction, the family and I are now getting into some if his shorter works. This small collection of 60-or-so-page books (like George’s Marvellous Medicine and The Magic Finger) probably should be bundled together as an omnibus of short stories—but of course that’s just the cheapskate in me talking!
Note: this post includes Amazon affiliate links.
The book at hand here blindsided us. As I’ve noted before, I’d never read any of Dahl’s works before this year (and we’re enjoying our exploration of him as a family), so apart from having seen some of his movies, I hadn’t been aware of how dark he could be at times. This story about George Kranky is the darkest children-related story we’ve yet read—which is why I’ve adapted Quentin Blake’s iconic cover with a little twist of my own (see below). I needed a watercolor project one night, so…you’re welcome, world.
Grandma Kranky is a horrible woman, to be sure. But when George is left alone with her one day and he decides to change up her medicine with a concoction of his own, the story goes so completely off the rails that I just had to stop and explain it to my kids: “Don’t ever do this!”
Sure, there was disclaimer at the beginning of the book that said the exact same thing, but still. I had to reiterate it. Heck, I’ll do it again in case they ever read this book review: “Kids, don’t ever remake George’s marvelous medicine and kill your grandma, please! Either of them!”
It’s one of those stories that’s so horrible, you just can’t look away. It’s a mixture of abuse and innocence, practical joking and retribution. It’s humorous and terrible and clever and memorable. It’s 100% Roald Dahl.
Going back to my cheapskate idea of selling all these books as an omnibus of sorts, I think the main reason Puffin continues to sell them singly is due to the partnership that grew between Dahl’s imaginative text and Quentin Blake’s expressive illustrations. According to the interweb, the two first began working together in 1976 and maintained a strong friendship that lasted until Dahl died in 1990. Blake eventually went back and illustrated nearly all of Dahl’s youth stories, but in the 1980s, they were so partnered that the text and pictures were both essential to the story; so whether these shorter works feel like short stories or not, they really are books and they need to remain that way, singular and epic.
Incidentally, I had to change a word above as I was writing this. I had called these things “children’s stories,” but then I’m like, nah, not really that. Dahl’s stories might be childlike and youthful, but they’re about as “children’s story” as was Shel Silverstien’s Uncle Shelby’s A-B-Z Book. Both are awesome, and I’ll keep reading them to my kids, but…I might not ever leave them alone together in the same house. Not without a nanny-cam at least.
©2022 E.T.
Want more reviews like this? Get Elliot’s Weekly Digest.
Read More from Roald Dahl:
- Adult Short Stories:
Over to You (1946)
Someone Like You (1953)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (1977) - Children Fiction:
James and the Giant Peach (1961)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
The Magic Finger (1964)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970)
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972)
Danny the Champion of the World (1975)
The Enormous Crocodile (1978)
The Twits (1980)
George’s Marvellous Medicine (1981)
The BFG (1982)
Dirty Beasts (1983)
Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984)
The Giraffe, the Pelly, and Me (1985)
Going Solo (1986)
Matilda (1988)
Esio Trot (1990)
The Minpins (1991)
The Vicar of Nibbleswicke (1991)
it is nice but not the best