Unseen (short story collection)
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Unseen is the ninth in a series of collections of short stories by Australian author Paul Jennings. It was first released in 1998.
The stories
One-Finger Salute
A boy always gets the rude finger from the school bully when he walks home from school, and does nothing about it because he doesn't have middle fingers himself. So one day, he eats a lizard's tail, and he ends up growing new fingers. However, it is not long before his fingers become more of an embarrassment than anything else.
Round the Bend
On the way to a sports game, some boys run over a dog; they try to get the dog replaced before its owners find out. But latee they find out the dogs owner keeps throwing stuffed dogs in front of cars, and guilts the man to buy another dog. WORTH $1000
Seeshell
A boy gets a job fishing with triplet brothers. He gets a crush on their sister, though the brothers really hate it when anyone kisses her. One day, while fishing, they find a seashell that has an eye in it; whenever the shell opens, the nearest person sees a vision about something that does eventually come true.
Piddler on the Roof
A sequel to the Unmentionable story Little Squirt. When the water in Sydney becomes contaminated, Weesle is forced to stay with his aunt in the countryside. He dislikes his aunt because she is a health freak, and her son enjoys telling on Weesle whenever he does anything even remotely wrong.
Ticker
An old man has a watch that runs on his movement whenever he wears it. When he dies, he loses it, and his wife is unable to feel happy. However, their grandson tries to get the watch back and make his grandmother happy.
Guts
A man tries to buy land from another man. When the man owning the land refuses, the other man steals his car. The man sends his children to look for the car; however, the forest they live near is believed to be haunted by a ghost that can change shape, force people and animals into it, and eat them.
Shadows
A boy goes to the fairground, but has no money, so he offers a job to clean the floor of the house of mirrors. However, all the reflections seem to come to life.
Squawk Talk
A boy gets a toilet seat stuck on his head (and a parrot following him) and makes belittling comments to anyone who teases him about it. But for those who do offer to help him, the parrot forces him to repeat the belittling comments.
Reception and Awards
Unseen won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Children's Books in 1999.[1]
References
- ^ Queensland Premier's Literary Awards (1999). "Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Previous Winners". Retrieved 18 February 2011.