Book Review On Paul Jennings Unseen
Unseen by Paul Jennings is a fantastic book full of short stories. Humour and lessons to be learnt are weaved throughout these stories. But I am concentrating two of his stories, the One Finger Salute and Squawk Talk.
The settings of both stories were in Melborne, the timing is in the present. The setting in both stories had a great effect on what happened throughout the stories. In the One Finger Salute the setting makes children relate to their own life, but with extra funny and unbelievable twists. In Squawk Talk the setting makes the story more exciting and interesting than it would, say in a small neighbourhood town.
In the One Finger Salute the moral is be careful what you wish for however in the other it is if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. Both stories are about treating people with respect and being kind to them. As a result the stories taught me to think before you act and to think of the consequences. The problem in Squawk Talk was that a little boy fell in the Yarra River and would have drowned, unless the main character ripped the toilet seat off his head.
The main character in the One Finger Salute and Squawk Talk is a person. It does not actually tell you the gender but it is most likely a boy, due to the events that happen throughout the stories. The secondary character in the One Finger Salute is a rude, mean boy named Gumble, in Squawk Talk it is a repeating parrot. The main character does the right thing in Squawk Talk when they rip the toilet seat off their head and throw it to save a little boy that is drowning. You can idetify the main character when pronouns are used, such as I, me and I'm.
The first main event that happens in the One Finger Salute is that Gumble sticks his finger up at the person. Secondly, the person explains how they lost their middle fingers and says how they would love to have middle fingers so they could do it back at Gumble. Than after that they eat their pet drop-tail lizard, Droplet, after their cat Slurp made Droplet's tail fall off. Magically their middle fingers grow back. They then finally get to do the rude finger back at Gumble. You know how drop-tail lizards tails drop off, well their fingers start to drop off in awkward places like in their ear.
At the start of Squawk Talk the person yells out, "Stupid idiot!" to a little boy walking on the rails of the bridge over the Yarra River. A wierdo with a parrot saves the boy from drowning with the life ring. The wierdo gets great thanks whereas the other person is just put down, in their anger they managed to get a toilet seat stuck on their head. The parrot starts to follow them, making them repeat themselves, and getting them into lots of trouble. Since the parrot was repeating the boy is once again on the bridge, someone yelled out, "Be careful!" and the boy once again falls in the river. The life ring is already gone and the person manages to rip the toilet seat off his head to save the little boy.
At the start of Squawk Talk the person yells out, "Stupid idiot!" to a little boy walking on the rails of the bridge over the Yarra River. A wierdo with a parrot saves the boy from drowning with the life ring. The wierdo gets great thanks whereas the other person is just put down, in their anger they managed to get a toilet seat stuck on their head. The parrot starts to follow them, making them repeat themselves, and getting them into lots of trouble. Since the parrot was repeating the boy is once again on the bridge, someone yelled out, "Be careful!" and the boy once again falls in the river. The life ring is already gone and the person manages to rip the toilet seat off his head to save the little boy.
Paul Jennings Unseen was a terrific book. The thing I enjoyed most about the book was how it contained short sories, instead of just one long story. Personally there was nothing I did not enjoy about the book. You could not believe what the outcomes are, but let me tell you that they are just awesome. My recommendation, you should read it.