The Paw Thing ¦ The Cabbage Patch Fib

Two brightly presented comic novellas by the popular Australian fantasy writer (of Uncanny!, Unreal!), Uncovered! etc. fame).

In the first story, the owner of a fried chicken outlet tells his assistant to dispose of a neurotic and seemingly incompetent cat who has allowed the business to become infested with mice. The assistant rescues the cat, and when the rodent plague reaches Biblical proportions, the creature returns to demonstrate his true talents. In the second story, a child whose father is too shy to tell him the facts of life makes his own discovery about reproduction when he finds a new-born green baby in the cabbage patch. At first, the boy is delighted as the child bonds to him, but the novelty of being a pre-teen father soon evaporates in a miasma of nappy stench.

These are excellent stories for fluent and beginner readers alike. The layout of the books is bold and spacious, and the manic vigour of Keith McEwan's colour illustrations presents a perfect accompaniment to these zany stories.