Undone (book)

Undone is the seventh in a series of collections of short stories by Australian author Paul Jennings. It was first released in 1993.

The stories

Batty

While camping, a girl and her father meet a boy who has live bats for clothes. They try to help this boy, who lives in a cave that is about to collapse, and also ended up like this because his parents had died.

Moonies

When an illiterate boy moves to a new school, the school bully has him sign a contract, which he does because he doesn't want anyone to know about his disability. Unfortunately, the contract means he has to moon his principal, ruining his chances of having his painting hung in the art gallery. However, the boy calls him a coward because the bully wouldn't moon and so he ends up doing it, but unfortunately for the bully, he gets into trouble.

Noseweed

A 95-year-old man enjoys cod-liver oil; his grandson does not. One day, while trying to breed a new species of apple in honour of his dead wife, his grandson comes over and is given his home-made muesli mixed with cod-liver oil in exchange for money for the movies. But since the grandson is unable to swallow it, the grandfather accompanies him to the movies. However, by leaving the oiled muesli in his mouth for too long, a plant grows on his face, which eventually produces the apple his grandfather wanted to invent.

A running gag in this story is that every time the dead grandmother is mentioned, "bless her heart" follows.

Wake Up to Yourself

A boy is always picked last for sports teams. However, he is about to get a baby brother. While sleeping on the night just before his brother is born, he dreams about a world where he has a mate who helps him all the time; this mate turns out to be a grown-up version of his brother. In the dream he also finds that his mother has died and he lives with his grown up version of his little brother, who is called simon but is nicknamed possum. When the boy's baby brother is born his mother cleans him and admires the new born and says "What a lovely little possum". Possum also has a birth mark the shape of australia just like the dream version of himself.

Thought Full

When a boy gets a new calf, his father wants to get rid of it, but the boy likes it so much, so he doesn't want that to happen. He eventually gets a bottle that, when drunk from, allows him to read peoples' minds.

This is the only Paul Jennings short story that is told from a second-person point of view. This is because the boy wants the reader to experience how he felt.

Clear as Mud

When a new boy arrives at school, the school bully gives him a very hard time. But when the new boy discovers an unidentified species of beetle, he becomes respected by the school - with the exception of the bully, of course. So when the school tries to show the beetle to the authorities, the bully steals it and expresses a desire to pass it as his own discovery. However, he gets bitten; throughout the following day at school, his body starts to become see-through. When it spreads to his entire body, he becomes a sideshow; embarrassed, he spends 10 years away from civilisation. Although he is back to normal when he returns, he still seems to be different.

What a Woman

The only girl at a 16-student school gets teased often by all the boys, for the dual reasons of being the only girl and being the worst of all of them in athletic venues. However, when she brings her dead aunt's good-luck charm to school, she suddenly becomes better than them.

You Be the Judge

A boy and his father live in the middle of the desert; despite the lack of customers at their tiny motel/petrol station, they believe that there will be even more because of a legend of a creature that lives in that area. One night, the boy goes out and spends several days wandering the desert, trying to find this legendary creature.

External links

The book at Paul Jennings's site