1amtarth 's review for:

3.0

Fun book to read to my young kids; imaginative in how a boy could haphazadly invent medicines that have such wacky effects. But aside from the fun mad-scientist bits, it's an odd story to read to my kids because of how unkindly it treats the grandma character. Yes she's snipe-ish and unpleasant, but I found the ending unsatisfying, with her shrinking away to nothing and her own daughter so quickly deciding that it's probably for the best that she mysteriously disappeared.

I don't usually get all huffy about the insensitive or not-politically-correct elements of Roald Dahl's books, but this story didn't have much to redeem itself from its unforgiving treatment of the grandma. Meh.