Unseen! Book

In Australia, Paul Jennings has sold millions of books and won stacks of awards. His acclaimed collections of immensely readable and addictive short stories with a twist in the tale are his trademark. Unseen! is his ninth such book and, reassuringly, it has exactly the same appeal and that slightly subversive and supernatural bent as his first, Unreal!. Uniformly strong, all eight stories feature an inspiring central character and young readers will certainly not need any encouragement to dip into them once discovered. Each alternates between hilarity, poignancy, triumph over wrongdoing, the eerily spooky and often the plain bizarre. "One-Finger Salute" is about a boy who develops a very handy skill of being able to grow extra fingers--but sometimes in places he wish they wouldn't. "Squawk Talk" features a parrot that won't go away and is determined to teach a bully a thing or two about manners. "Seeshell" stars a very strange crustacean that won't stop predicting doom and gloom to its owner. There are more too--each one defined by an originality and with a clear message of good intention that makes them adored by children and adults alike. The short sentences, quick-fire plot and pay-off scenarios have encouraged thousands of young readers to respond so positively to these mini-masterpieces. Unseen! is a must-have book for reluctant readers and lovers of the unusual--hopefully not the last from Jennings' pen and extraordinarily creative mind. (Age 8 and over) --John McLayRead More