Tony Twist and his three children (thirteen-year-old twins Pete and Linda and nine-year-old Bronson) move to an old lighthouse on the rugged Australian coast. They soon discover that the lighthouse and the outhouse are haunted.
'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)
'A boy is always lonely at school because the school bully never lets anyone associate with him. He is pretty much lonely at home as well because of his lack of technology. But one day, he gets a strange video player whose remote control also works on people. However, the bully eventually steals the remote. Back at school, they both enter a spaghetti-eating contest in which the winner earns a free holiday. The bully, due to eating too much spaghetti via the fast forward function on the remote, throws up and is disqualified from the contest, allowing the boy to win the holiday. Was later adapted as an episode of Round The Twist.' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_(short_story_collection))
'This thesis discusses the influence of elements of Bakhtinian camivalesque in selected contemporary Australian children’s literature. Many of the Bakhtinian ideas are centred on the work of Franqois Rabelais, particularly his five books collectively entitled Gargantua and Pantagruel. Aspects of the complex field of Bakhtinian camivalesque that have been considered include: attitudes to authority, the grotesque body and its working, the importance of feasting and the associated concepts of bodily functioning, customs in relation to food, and ritual and specific language such as the use of curses and oaths. The role of humour and the manifest forms this takes within carnival are intrinsic and are discussed at some length. These central tenets are explored in two ways: first, in relation to their connection and use within the narrative structures of a selection of books short listed (and thus critically acclaimed) by the Australian Children’s Book Council from the early 1980s to the early 2000s, and second, by means of contrast, to the commercially popular but generally less critically acclaimed works of other Australian writers such as Paul Jennings and Andy Griffiths. The thesis concludes by considering the ways in which camivalesque freedom is encouraged through and by new media.'
Source: Abstract.
'This thesis discusses the influence of elements of Bakhtinian camivalesque in selected contemporary Australian children’s literature. Many of the Bakhtinian ideas are centred on the work of Franqois Rabelais, particularly his five books collectively entitled Gargantua and Pantagruel. Aspects of the complex field of Bakhtinian camivalesque that have been considered include: attitudes to authority, the grotesque body and its working, the importance of feasting and the associated concepts of bodily functioning, customs in relation to food, and ritual and specific language such as the use of curses and oaths. The role of humour and the manifest forms this takes within carnival are intrinsic and are discussed at some length. These central tenets are explored in two ways: first, in relation to their connection and use within the narrative structures of a selection of books short listed (and thus critically acclaimed) by the Australian Children’s Book Council from the early 1980s to the early 2000s, and second, by means of contrast, to the commercially popular but generally less critically acclaimed works of other Australian writers such as Paul Jennings and Andy Griffiths. The thesis concludes by considering the ways in which camivalesque freedom is encouraged through and by new media.'
Source: Abstract.