"George was bored to tears. He didn't have a brother or a sister. His father was a farmer, and the farm they lived on was miles away from anywhere, so there were never any children to play with. He was tired of staring at pigs and hens and cows and sheep. He was especially tired of having to live in the same house as that grizzly old grunion of a grandma." pg. 1 George's Marvelous Medicine

While eight year old Georges parents are out one Saturday afternoon, George is left in charge of his grouchy grandmother and making sure she gets her medicine at eleven o'clock. Tired of grandma bossing him around and complaining that he grows too fast, George decides to fix up her medicine with some new ingredients. In an enormous stewing pot George mixes up whatever he can find, including toothpaste from the bathroom, canary seed from the laundry room, "extra hot" chili sauce from the kitchen and from the barn gigantic purple pills for horses with hoarse throats. At eleven o'clock when grandma takes her new medicine, she immediately shots up out of her chair and hovers in the air, smoke starts coming out of her nose, she gets "jacky-jumpers" in her tummy, her body starts to blow-up like a balloon, and then ... then ... well you'll have to read to find out what marvelous things happen next.

Roald Dahl, the author of not only George's Marvelous Medicine, but many other popular children's books including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda, was born in September of 1916. This month in the Children's Department we are celebrating the author and his well-loved children's books with art projects, puzzles and a bulletin board documenting the destinations our Magic City Peach has traveled to in the last few months. So stop by and make a Fantastic Mr. Fox mask, an Enormous Crocodile or your very own little Willy Wonka. You can even make your own peach and send it on a journey to exciting places!