Quirky
Tails by Paul Jennings
Published
by Puffin Books, 1990
Reviewed
by Kilmihil Children’s Book Club
This is a selection
of nine short stories by author Paul Jennings. The children found
the book was easy to read and some said that they would prefer short
stories to a longer novel, while others disagreed and would have
liked some of the stories in the book to go on as most endings left
them wondering what happened next.
The more popular
stories in the book were No is Yes, Sneeze n Coffin, The Copy and
Spooks Incorporated.
In No is Yes,
Ralph goes to visit Dr. Scrapes and meets his daughter. He can’t
understand why she says things the wrong way until Dr. Scrapes tells
him that she has never spoken to any other person but him all of
her life, and when he talked to her he changed words around. No
was yes, salt was sugar and so on. Of course, in time Dr. Scrapes
gets his comeuppance.
Sneeze n Coffin
is a hilarious story about a girl whose stepfather is an undertaker
– for both pets and humans.
The Copy is
another quirky tale about a new invention – a copy machine
that can make exact copies of anything, even people, with disastrous
results.
Spooks Incorporated
is both scary and funny. Two men have started a business venture,
spooks for hire. They are hired by relatives to scare off other
people, but things backfire when they meet up with the ghost of
a headless chicken.
The book was
well liked by the book club members and was given nine marks out
of ten. The stories are extremely funny but also sometimes quite
strange and scary.
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