KS1 / KS2 English: George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl

DICK:I mean, normally grandmas are lovely, and sweet and kind and smell of pretty flowers, don't they?

DOM:Yeah, but not in this book. I mean… This grandma is 100% the opposite. I mean, she shouts, she bullies, she eats slugs, and she's got one of those puckered up mouths that never smiles.

DICK:Oh, who'd want a grandma like that?

DOM:Well… This lad George, yeah? He's got no choice. Poor George. That horrible crinkly old bag is so horrible to him!

DICK:Ah! Until George comes up with a secret plan.

DOM:Ah, exactly! And that's what this book is all about. Every day, George's grandma has to take a very special medicine. So, George decides to make her a brand new medicine. So, he runs around the farm, where he lives, finding all sorts of weird ingredients.

DICK:Yeah. Rotten old banana skins… Shoe polish… Shampoo… Extra hot chilli sauce! Them.

DOM:And he makes a brand new mixture that he hopes will give his grandma a big whopper of a surprise.

DICK:Can you smell something funny?

DICK:I always thought in books that children were supposed to be good and old ladies were really kind, but when I first read this book I couldn't believe what George was doing.

DOM:And who can blame him? I mean… Quentin Blake's illustrations REALLY show you how disgusting that grandma really is.

DICK:Oh yeah, nasty piece of work, but what it makes you think, though, and wonder, is what's gonna happen to her when she tries the medicine.

DOM:You can really tell that the writer, Roald Dahl, is on George's side. This is one of my favourite parts of the book, where George doesn't want his grandma to know that he's boiling her up a big surprise.

DICK:"'George!' Came the awful voice from the next room. 'It's time for my medicine!'

DOM:'Not yet, Grandma!' George called back. 'There's still twenty minutes before eleven o'clock!'

DICK:'What mischief are you up to in there now?' Granny screeched. 'I hear noises!'

DOM:George thought it best not to answer this one. He found a long wooden spoon in a kitchen drawer, and began stirring hard. The stuff in the pot got hotter, and hotter.

DICK:Soon, the marvellous mixture began to froth and foam. A rich, blue smoke, the colour of peacocks, rose from the surface of the liquid, and a fiery, fearsome smell filled the kitchen.

DOM:It made George choke and splutter. It was a smell unlike any he had smelt before. It was a brutal, bewitching smell, spicy and staggering, fierce and frenzied, full of wizardry and magic.

DICK:Whenever he got a whiff of it up his nose, fire crackers went off in his skull, and electric prickles ran along the back of his legs.

DOM:It was wonderful to stand there stirring this amazing mixture, and to watch it smoking blue, and bubbling, and frothing, and foaming, as though it were alive."

DICK:Soon, George started to get really excited about his wonderful mixture.

DOM:"At one point, he could have sworn he saw bright sparks flashing in the swirling foam.

DICK:And suddenly, George found himself dancing around the steaming pot, chanting strange words that came into his head out of nowhere!

BOTH:Fiery broth and witches brew, foamy froth and riches blue, fume and spume and spoondrift spray, fizzle, swizzle, shout hooray! Watch it sloshing, swashing, sploshing, hear it hissing, squishing, spitting, Grandma better start to pray."

DICK:I wonder what's gonna happen to her.

DOM:This book still makes me laugh. And, until I read Roald Dahl, I didn't think it was possible for a book to make you laugh so much you fall of your chair, or pee your pants laughing. Yeah, I know. There are loads of funny books out there, and you can see which stories make you laugh the most.

DICK:You know, George is a real hero in this book, because he has a really hard time for the whole thing, but then, he really fights back. And you're probably wondering why Grandma ends up with her head stuck through the roof.

DOM:And, what about the chicken the size of a house?

DOM:And, of course, if you want to know more, you'll have to read the book.

DOM:Hang on, where is the book?

DOM:Oh no.

DICK:It's amazing!

DOM:Yeah, I know the book's amazing.

DICK:Mind-blowing!

DOM:I know the book is mind-blowing, but now it's covered in goop.

DOM:Bit more salt… Yeah… Salt.