Without a shirt -- The strap box flyer -- Skeleton on the dunny -- Lucky lips -- Cow dung custard --Lighthouse blues -- Smart ice cream -- Wunderpants.
Summary: Eight bizarre, grisly and ghoulish stories.
Without a shirt -- The strap box flyer -- Skeleton on the dunny -- Lucky lips -- Cow dung custard --Lighthouse blues -- Smart ice cream -- Wunderpants.
Eight bizarre, grisly and ghoulish stories.
Reviews provided by Syndetics
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8-- A skeleton, a ghost, and an ice-cream man are just a few of the fascinating characters readers will meet in this collection of short stories from Australia. Imagine a boy's fear at finding himself face-to-face with the ghost of a man who died in the outhouse, or another boy's worries over having to say ``without a shirt'' at the end of every sentence he utters--that is, until he reunites all the bones from a skeleton. New pink underwear with fairies on it is the source of one boy's great embarrassment until he discovers a just-as-new surge of superhuman powers. Jennings has found the perfect formula for the scary and supernatural sprinkled with just the right touch of hilarity. Both the vocabulary and a terse, journalistic style coupled with a frequent first-person point-of-view make this a natural for reluctant readers and storytellers. If Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (Lippincott, 1981), and Leach's The Thing at the Foot of the Bed (Philomel, 1987), and Whistle in the Graveyard (Puffin, 1982) are hot ticket items, don't miss out on the fun here. --Jeanne Marie Clancy, Upper Merion Township Library, King of Prussia, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 4-8. The first offering by Australian writer Jennings available in this country is an entertaining assortment of short stories--some scary, some funny, some just plain gross--each told by a young male protagonist. On the scarier side are "Skeleton on the Dunny" and "Lighthouse Blues," the latter about two deceased lighthouse keepers who play a spooky serenade to chase away newcomers. The comic "Wunderpants" combines scenes from every boy's greatest fantasy and worst nightmare: David's magic underwear helps him triumph over the school jock, but then his pants begin to shrink, and he finds himself at school stark naked. Jennings' "Cow Dung Custard" falls in the "gross" category--it is the story of a father's experimentation with different kinds of fertilizer, one of which attracts every fly in the country and leaves the neighbors armpit-deep in dead bugs. Jennings has a good sense of what boys want to read, and these stories are sure to be popular. ~--Randy Meyer
Horn Book Review
A ghost inhabits an outhouse; a boy sees an Unidentified Flying Dog in the sky; a man invents a fertilizer called 'cow dung custard' and is run out of town. These Australian short stories are vulgar, somewhat scary, and very odd. Although a few of the tales are genuinely funny, most suffer from excessive hyperbole and a sameness of tone. From HORN BOOK 1991, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Book Review
Australia's answer to Robert Munsch and Barry Polisar offers a collection of wacky tales, each featuring a ghost, a skeleton, or at least a twist of magic. In ``Without a Shirt,'' Brian's dog keeps fetching human bones that try to rearrange themselves; the ``Skeleton on the Dunny'' haunts an outhouse; young Anton saves his beloved lighthouse with the help of musical ghosts playing ``Lighthouse Blues.'' In ``The Strap Box Flyer,'' a huckster sells wonderful glue that works on anything--for just four hours; Greg's composter dad kills a plague of flies with his aromatic ``Cow Dung Custard.'' David has super powers when he wears his pink ``Wunderpants''; and, thanks to his new ``Lucky Lips,'' every female Marcus meets must kiss him--fine, until he falls into the pigpen. A shadowy, macabre jacket illustration makes an effective visual hook for a collection with broad humor and twisted plotlines that will especially appeal to readers without the patience for mood pieces or complex character development. A companion volume, Uncanny, is being published simultaneously. (Short stories. 11-13)