Fifth title in the best-selling Jiggy McCue series. A new girl at Jiggy's school has an allergy - her nose runs dramatically at unexpected times. Everyone shuns her except Angie, to Pete and Jiggy's disgust. One day, in class, the new girl does a mighty sneeze, spraying snot all over the window, and Jiggy sees pictures in it that foretell the future. It turns out that the girl has reached the age where females in her family develop a Gift - hers is to be able to tell the future via her nose - she's something of a Nostrilamus. Meanwhile, the three friends, Jiggy, Pete and Angie have found a creature on the council tip - a small, brown, furry character, the Snottle, that seems to have a strange bond with the new girl...
Upon arriving home from work one day, Professor Yish Kabibble receives a rather mysterious letter, requesting he attend an appointment in Kookaburra Woods the following day at ten o'clock. Despite the puzzling nature of the note, the professor can't help but show up, wondering who on earth would send him a "royal" invitation. Soon, Professor Kabibble finds himself the unwilling recruit of an ancient army sergeant—a representative of the underworld society known as the Scruttles. The Scruttles have fallen under a curse that threatens the survival of their secret race, and the professor is their only hope. To save them, however, Yish will risk more than just his scientific reputation ... In the subterranean world of the Scruttles, Professor Yish Kabibble must face a host of strange underworld creatures and life-threatening hazards to lift the curse. Only he can deliver their world into harmony and its former glory. Only he can bring the Scruttles back from annihilation. But will he fulfill his destiny, or will he too be swallowed by the curse of the Scruttles?
Jiggy is given a pen - one of those with a scantily-clad female in it who loses her clothes when the pen is tipped. Trouble is, when Jiggy uses the pen, his clothes disappear too - but being Jiggy, he doesn't put two and two together until he has suffered a number of very nude, public and embarassing episodes.
In this new book, Julie Cross examines the intricacies of textual humor in contemporary junior literature, using the tools of literary criticism and humor theory. Cross investigates the dialectical paradoxes of humor and debunks the common belief in oppositional binaries of ‘simple’ versus ‘complex’ humor. The varied combinations of so-called high and low forms of humor within junior texts for young readers, who are at such a crucial stage of their reading and social development, provide a valuable commentary upon the culture and values of contemporary western society, making the book of considerable interest to scholars of both children’s literature and childhood studies. Cross explores the ways in which the changing content, forms and functions of the many varied combinations of humor in junior texts, including the Lemony Snickett series, reveal societal attitudes towards young children and childhood. The new compounds of seemingly paradoxical high and low forms of humor, in texts for developing readers from the 1960s onwards, reflect and contribute to contemporary society’s hesitant and uneven acceptance of the emergent paradigm of children’s rights, abilities, participation and empowerment. Cross identifies four types of potentially subversive/transgressive humor which have emerged since the 1960s which, coupled with the three main theories of humor – relief, superiority and incongruity theories – enables a long-overdue charting of developments in humor within junior texts. Cross also argues that the gradual increase in the compounding of the simple and the complex provide opportunities for young readers to play with ambiguous, complicated ideas, helping them embrace the complexities and contradictions of contemporary life.
A collection of short stories, each told by a different character from the Jiggy McCue stories. Here we have tales from the points of view not only of Jiggy, but also Pete, Angie, and even Stallone the cat. Full of Michael Lawrence's trademark surreal humour, and told with wit and verve, these will appeal to all Jiggy fans.
There's something a bit weird about Ralph's new neighbour, Jack Bilt, and it isn't long before Ralph finds out the strange secret. Jack Bilt has managed to get his hands on a powerful miniaturisation device and has been using it on people! He's been moving around the country to hide the fact that he has created a mini work-force to work on a miniaturised house. Once the house is complete, he plans to use it as a fairground attraction, rather like an old-fashioned freak show. Time is running out, and soon Ralph finds himself miniaturised too...
This eighth Jiggy McCue story sees Jiggy and his pals, Angie and Pete, as usual, in trouble. This time, they are under threat from the brain of Bryan Ryan, one of their classmates. Bryan's Brain is out of control and threatening to take over the world! And only Jiggy, Pete and Angie, the 'Three Musketeers', can stop it. One for All and All for Lunch!
This sixth Jiggy McCue story sees the return of a character who first appeared in 'The Killer Underpants', namely Neville the Devil. Neville is part of the Little Devils network, and his reappearance in Jiggy's life brings chaos and confusion to young Jiggy and his friends Pete and Angie.
