George Kranky
George is either a junior poisoner or a child defending himself from a wicked grandparent, depending on your perspective. He is frightened of his grandmother and feels that she needs to be taught a lesson for terrorizing him so much whilst he is in her care. His icky yucky medicine turns out to be a magic potion that makes everything grow very tall.
George is not a very good alchemist because even though his potions have extremely potent effects, he is unable to remember ingredients, and he doesn't write anything down. This is something he regrets when he shrinks his grandmother so much that she disappears completely. The book ends as he contemplates what he has done and the way in which his spontaneous actions can have far reaching consequences.
Grandmother Kranky
George's grandmother is not a very loving or maternal woman. In fact she is quite cruel to George and delights in frightening him with tales of eating insects, which makes him wonder if she is a witch. When she drinks George's home made medicine she grows so tall that she has to sleep in the barn. This does not prevent her from complaining, however. She feels ignored, and when she storms over to the Kranky's house to moan more about this, she drinks another potion that shrinks her into obscurity. At the end of the book,, though, she does admit that this serves her right, and that she was becoming extremely annoying anyway.
Mr Kranky
George's dad is excited by George's newly discovered alchemy skills, because he can see a way in which they can be monetized. He sees the medicine that makes everything grow taller as a moneymaker for farmers everywhere, as they can grow their livestock to enormous proportions and make far more money out of them.He loses his moral compass a little bit because of this, and is so focused on encouraging George to recreate the medicine that he is oblivious to the harm he might be doing and to the ethical implications of the exercise.
