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What’s that smell?: Why call the family dog “King”? Because he is the “King of Farts”. This silly story is about how the family worked out who was making terrible smells, and how they found a way to deal with it. (370 words) Themes: Consideration, Good manners (Zip Stage 5) (Flesch grade 2.4) (Lexile 370) |
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Slime soup: Sybil the witch is making slime soup. Her niece heads off to the Snutcher’s shop to get snails. Back home, they make the soup, but the snails escape. What to do? Make soup from sneezes instead! (373 words) Themes: Problem solving (Zip Stage 6) (Flesch grade 2.9) (Lexile 520) |
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Spew: One day, Pat throws up in class. Fortunately the teacher remains calm and cleans up. She then finds creative ways to take the children outside for their lessons, with writing on the footpath and Maths about basketball and counting cars. Far from being horrified, the children are delighted. (500 words) Themes: Compassion, Adaptability (Zip Stage 5) (Flesch grade 2.8) (Lexile 500) |
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Dog Poo: One day, Anna stands in some dog poo. No matter what she does it won’t go away, and the smell is awful. Back home, she has to shower and wash her hair, and her mother makes her promise to look where she’s going next time. (570 words) Themes: Caution, Listening to advice (Zip Stage 6) (Flesch grade 3.1) (Lexile 570) |
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Delicious: The narrator of this story wants to test out whether her family can tell the difference between human food and dog food. To her horror, her deception works and they eat the dog casserole. But while she has got away with her trick, there is a surprise ending waiting for her. (666 words) Themes: Health, Consequences of misbehaviour (Zip Stage 5) (Flesch grade 3.9) (Lexile 350) |
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Spaghetti Face: A girl is in the shopping centre one day when she comes upon a competition to eat strange things blindfolded. She can cope with dunking her face in spaghetti, but when she wins, the next test involves live worms! Will she be able to go on? (705 words) Themes: Courage, Reward for effort (Zip Stage 5) (Flesch grade 3.7) (Lexile 705) |
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Instant Spew: Tyson needs money, and comes up with the wild scheme of making fake spew to sell in class. Why? So people can pretend to be sick and get out of having to do Maths tests or other tasks. However, all is not going to go smoothly in Tyson’s new life of crime. (669 words) Themes: Inventiveness, Consequences (Zip Stage 8) (Flesch grade 5.2) (Lexile 740) |
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Maggots: Jason has a huge problem with his horrible next door neighbour, Travis, who is a liar and a thief. However, Jason suddenly sees a use for the custard tarts that Mrs Barnes has baked, that have gone off. The maggots in the tarts might just be the cure for Travis. (524 words) Themes: Consequences, Revenge (Zip Stage 8) (Flesch grade 5.4) (Lexile 880) |
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Arachnophoebe: Phoebe hates spiders. She has “arachnophobia”. She is terrified when a spider falls on her book, and when a log her dad is chopping is full of spiders, and especially when she gets a doll as a present – with its own spider. How then will she cope with a school project on spiders? (817 words) Themes: Phobias, Dealing with fear (Zip Stage 5) (Flesch grade 3.3) (Lexile 400) |
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The Gremlin Vine: Mum buys a new pot plant. When it grows it has a little face on it. More amazing still, it likes eating things, and it seems to have a nasty streak. As the vine gets bigger and meaner, it becomes a major problem. It bites. It fights with people. What to do to stop it? (1203 words) Themes: Danger, Problem solving (Zip Stage 5) (Flesch grade 3.0) (Lexile 350) |
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Simon’s Secret: Simon is a “Phantom Farter”! He will do it anywhere, even in church. The teacher seems powerless to stop Simon’s smells. But the Principal is more than up to someone like Simon – and finds a quick way to fix the problem. (689 words) Themes: Consideration, Consequences of misbehaviour (Zip Stage 8) (Flesch grade 6.1) (Lexile 870) |
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Dead Meat: The narrator is madly in love with his classmate Elanora. How to win her heart? She loves animals, so he buys Billy the goat. But Billy is not an easy pet to have, and when Billy eats the ring he has bought for Elanora things seem to be getting completely out of hand. (1003 words) Themes: Embarrassment, Love (Zip Stage 6) (Flesch grade 3.4) (Lexile 460) This story is not challenging linguistically, but its key ideas are more “grown up” and it is appropriate for older children. |