Based on various short stories by Paul Jennings, Wormwood follows the happenings in the small town of Wormwood, where the fact that the town's economy is based on the production and sale of worm excrement is not the strangest thing about the place.
Previous television series based on Jennings's short stories were Driven Crazy and Round the Twist.
'A boy called Brian has a speech impediment that forces him to say "Without a shirt" each time he finishes a sentence. When he is forced to move to a new house in the center of a cemetery because his dog is repeatedly digging, he eventually finds some bones that may be linked to his speech impediment. After fulfilling the task involving the bones and a shirt, he loses the speech impediment. Was later adapted as an episode of Round The Twist, although "without my shirt" was changed to "without my pants".' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_(short_story_collection))
'A conniving salesman named Giffen sells a glue that will stick to anything, but stops working after four hours. After getting many innocent townspeople to buy it, he leaves town in his truck before they can track him down for cheating them, then meets a man who has invented a box that can make people fly into the sky. Attempting to try it for himself leads to the biggest mistake of his life.' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_(short_story_collection)
'A boy called Bob was forced to live with his aunt because of his parents' deaths, but the only toilet at his aunt's house is in an outhouse. Even worse, that outhouse is haunted by the ghost of a man who was dead after looking after the house when the aunt was on a holiday. Was later adapted as the first episode of Round The Twist.' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_(short_story_collection)
'A boy who has never been kissed obtains a lipstick that will make nearby girls kiss him. However, it also works on any female, including animals . Was later adapted as an episode of Round The Twist.'(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_(short_story_collection)
'Greg has a father who grows vegetables that are tremendous because of all the dung he uses to grow them. The worst batches are one that cannot be smelled, but attracts flies, and one that smells so incredibly bad that it gets him in trouble with the neighbours, but also kills flies. At the end, Greg and his father get into trouble...' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_(short_story_collection)
'A boy comes to an island to help an old lighthouse keeper. However, every Friday night, music plays, and the boy suspects it has something to do with the lighthouse keeper's ancestors. Was later adapted into a plot-arc of the first season of Round The Twist.' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_(short_story_collection)
'An ice-cream seller has special ice-creams that have effects such as making people happier, shortening peoples' noses, removing pimples, and making people smarter. A smart boy who is always top of the class gets jealous, because he never gets any of the ice-cream and also because one of his classmates becomes as good as him, so he ruins the ice-cream business by destroying all the ice-cream except the one that makes people smarter. He then proceeds to eat that one, only to find out that it actually makes people less smart.' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_(short_story_collection)
'A boy is given underpants that, despite their look that would cause him to be teased by the school bully, give him superhuman strength. But when he takes a break during a cross-country race (he is first by a wide margin), those underpants start to shrink, and the bully eventually comes to steal the rest of his clothes. He ends up going home in the nude, causing him to be grounded, but he eventually enters a mouse race in which the winner gets 50 dollars. The boy wins the mouse race by giving the mouse the pants. Was later adapted as an episode of Round The Twist.' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_(short_story_collection)
'Voracious Children explores food and the way it is used to seduce, to pleasure, and coerce not only the characters within children's literature but also its readers. There are a number of gripping questions concerning the quantity and quality of the food featured in children's fiction that immediately arise: why are feasting fantasies so prevalent, especially in the British classics? What exactly is their appeal to historical and contemporary readers? What do literary food events do to readers? Is food the sex of children's literature? The subject of children eating is compelling but, why is it that stories about children being eaten are not only horrifying but also so incredibly alluring? This book reveals that food in fiction does far, far more that just create verisimilitude or merely address greedy readers' desires. The author argues that the food trope in children's literature actually teaches children how to be human through the imperative to eat "good" food in a "proper" controlled manner. Examining timely topics such as childhood obesity and anorexia, the author demonstrates how children's literature routinely attempts to regulate childhood eating practices and only award subjectivity and agency to those characters who demonstrate "normal" appetites.
'Examining a wide range of children's literature classics from Little Red Riding Hood to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, this book is an outstanding and unique enquiry into the function of food in children's literature, and it will make a significant contribution to the fields of both children's literature and the growing interdisciplinary domain of food, culture and society.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Voracious Children explores food and the way it is used to seduce, to pleasure, and coerce not only the characters within children's literature but also its readers. There are a number of gripping questions concerning the quantity and quality of the food featured in children's fiction that immediately arise: why are feasting fantasies so prevalent, especially in the British classics? What exactly is their appeal to historical and contemporary readers? What do literary food events do to readers? Is food the sex of children's literature? The subject of children eating is compelling but, why is it that stories about children being eaten are not only horrifying but also so incredibly alluring? This book reveals that food in fiction does far, far more that just create verisimilitude or merely address greedy readers' desires. The author argues that the food trope in children's literature actually teaches children how to be human through the imperative to eat "good" food in a "proper" controlled manner. Examining timely topics such as childhood obesity and anorexia, the author demonstrates how children's literature routinely attempts to regulate childhood eating practices and only award subjectivity and agency to those characters who demonstrate "normal" appetites.
'Examining a wide range of children's literature classics from Little Red Riding Hood to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, this book is an outstanding and unique enquiry into the function of food in children's literature, and it will make a significant contribution to the fields of both children's literature and the growing interdisciplinary domain of food, culture and society.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.