George's Marvelous Medicine

George’s Marvelous Medicine is a 1981 children’s fantasy/magical realism novella by Roald Dahl. Popular since its publication, the book featured in a 1986 episode of Jackanory, a television show designed to promote reading to children in England. It has also been released twice in audiobook format, featuring narrators Richard E. Grant and Derek Jacobi, respectively. In 2003, George’s Marvelous Medicine appeared 134th on the BBC’s “The Big Read,” which asked readers in the United Kingdom to name their favorite book. Citations in this guide correspond with the 2013 Puffin Books edition.

Plot Summary

Eight-year-old George Kranky lives with his parents and grandmother on a farm. One morning, Mrs. Kranky leaves George home to take care of Grandma. After Mrs. Kranky leaves, Grandma criticizes George and scares him as she talks about eating insects and using magic.

Hiding in the kitchen, George decides to replace Grandma’s usual medicine with something he hopes will have a more powerful effect. He carries a large pot throughout the house, adding all the liquids, powders, and sprays he can find to the mixture. He also adds several medicines his father uses to treat the farm animals. George boils and mixes his concoction on the stove, adding brown paint to make it look like Grandma’s regular medicine.

At 11 o’clock, George gives a spoonful of the medicine to Grandma, who first puts off smoke, then begins to grow taller and taller. At Grandma’s request, George gives her another dose, and she grows until her head pokes through the roof of the house. When Grandma claims that her magic, not George’s medicine, caused her growth, George gives some of the medicine to a hen, which grows to the size of a horse.

Mrs. Kranky returns from shopping, and Mr. Kranky returns from working in the fields. Excited at the prospect of raising enormous farm animals, Mr. Kranky has George give doses of his medicine to several other animals, each of which grows to extraordinary size. At Mrs. Kranky’s request, Mr. Kranky calls a crane to remove Grandma from the house. Once she is free, Grandma takes a ride on a pony that received a dose of the medicine. She sleeps in the barn that night.

The next day, Mr. Kranky asks George to make more of the medicine, which he hopes to sell to farmers all over the world. George isn’t sure he can remember all the ingredients, but he makes a list, and Mr. Kranky buys each of the items. They mix them together and try the resulting medicine on a chicken, but only the chicken’s legs grow longer.

George remembers a few additional ingredients, which Mr. Kranky buys. They add them to the mixture and try it on another chicken. This time, only the chicken’s neck grows longer. George remembers several more ingredients and adds them to the mix as well. The chicken he tries this final batch on grows smaller instead of larger.

Grandma approaches, complaining that no one brought her a cup of tea. Mistaking the cup of George’s medicine for a cup of tea, she drinks the whole thing and shrinks until she vanishes from sight. At first, Mrs. Kranky is upset, but she soon admits that Grandma’s selfishness made her a burden. George remains shocked and moved by his apparent brush with magic.