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Just Shocking!

Short story collection, 2007 (The Just! series)

Just Shocking! is the sixth book in the Just! series and contains 10 shocking short stories.

 

Is this the right book for you?

Take the SHOCKING TEST and find out.

1. Do you wish you could drive around in a monster truck crushing everybody and everything that gets in your way?
2. Do you love watching videos of people having painful accidents?
3. Do you do any – or all – of the following: touch electric fences, play with loaded mousetraps or put buttons up your nose?
4. Do you think stories about exploding pink butterflies are funny?
5. Do you ever laugh so hard that you feel like you're going to throw up all over yourself... and then you actually do?

SCORE: One point for each 'yes' answer.

3-5 You are a shocking, shocking person! You will love this book.
1-2 You are quite shocking! You will love this book.
0 What a shocking score! You will love this book.

 

CONTENTS
1. Fun with a fire hose
A conversation between Andy and Danny in which they muse on the 'fun' one could have with a large, powerful fire hose.

2. I am a ro-bot
Andy comes up with the idea of pretending to be a robot to annoy Jen, but soon realises he can use his new persona to get out of doing his chores by claiming he is not programmed to do anything but watch television. His parents attempt to teach him a lesson by putting him in the cupboard with the vacuum cleaner.

3. Balloons of doom
A choose-your-own balloon-blowing adventure in which you, the reader, have to blow up 15 pink balloons for Jen's birthday without dying in 15 balloon-blowing-related incidents.

4. Unfunniest home video
Andy is trying to set Danny up to have an accident so he can film it, get it on 'Funniest Home Videos' and win some prize money.

5. 101 really dangerous things
A list of 101 dangerous things, such as running with scissors, playing with matches and girl germs.

6. A really, really good excuse
A story, told mostly in comic-strip format, about an excuse Andy comes up with for being late for school. His excuse, which involves tight underpants, serving time in jail and saving the world from certain doom, is so convoluted that by the time he's finished telling it, school is over and he's now running late for his after-school dentist's appointment.

7. Why I love Choco-pops in fifty words or less
This story is Andy's entry in a competition explaining why he loves Choco-pops (in 50 words or less). Needless to say, it takes Andy a lot more than 50 words to explain himself (in fact, his essay includes 35 postscripts that have little or nothing to do with Choco-pops at all).

8. Lemonade roulette
On an extremely hot day Danny and Andy are playing lemonade roulette with 6 cans of lemonade. The game involves shaking up one can, mixing them all up so you can't tell which is the explosive one and then opening them one by one. Andy and Danny both select a can and open these without incident. Then Dad and his boss, Mr Bainbridge, come in, followed by Mum and Mrs Bainbride, and they all help themselves to a can of lemonade. Andy watches in horrified suspense to see who will open the exploding can, knowing, of course, that it will have to be Mr Bainbridge.

9. The exploding butterfly story
A picture-book story about life, the universe and everything (with a lot of exploding butterflies).

10. Fun with a monster truck
A conversation between Andy and Danny in which they muse on the 'fun' one could have with a large, powerful monster truck.

Note: Retitled and republished in the UK in 2010 as Help! My Parents Think I'm A Robot and 9 Other Just Shocking Stories.

Reviews

Not since Griffiths and Denton's What Bumosaur is That? has a children's book inspired me to such hearty laughter. Just Shocking!, like the pair's many other purlers, appeals because of its unashamed, unaffected immaturity.
Border Mail

A fun read jam-packed with quirky stories and awesome illustrations. This book will have you rolling with laughter at exploding butterflies, exploding explosions, and the explosion of exploding explosions.
Mania

Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton are in fine form, wreaking havoc and having a ball and sweeping he reader up in sheer ridiculousness.
Sunday Age

Extract

Fun with a fire hose

DANNY: Hey, Andy, I've been thinking, and you know what? I reckon we could have a lot of fun with a fire hose.

ANDY: A fire hose?

DANNY: Yeah! See those people in that park having a picnic?

ANDY: Yes, I see them, but what have they got to do with a fire hose?

DANNY: Well, if we had a fire hose, we could point it at them, turn it on and they would all go flying everywhere!

ANDY: Okay, but what if they called in the army and there were all these armoured tanks coming at us? What then?

DANNY: Blast them with the hose, of course.

ANDY: Yeah, we could try, but you can't 'blast' armoured tanks away with nothing but a hose.

DANNY: Yes we can! It's a FIRE HOSE, remember?

ANDY: I know, but they're ARMOURED TANKS, remember?

DANNY: Oh, didn't I tell you? It's an ARMOURED TANK FIRE HOSE.

ANDY: No, you didn't say that.

DANNY: Well, it is.

ANDY: That's good to know, but what if they brought in the fire brigade and about twenty trucks turned up? They would have twenty fire hoses and we would only have one, and even though it's an armoured tank fire hose, it would still only be one fire hose against twenty.

DANNY: I didn't think of that.

ANDY: You really should have.

DANNY: No, hang on! I've got it! I know what we'd do. We'd take the fire hose, sit on it, turn it on really hard and blast ourselves right out of there. They'd NEVER catch us!

ANDY: That's brilliant, Danny! You're really serious about this, aren't you?

DANNY: You bet.

ANDY: Well, then, what are we waiting for? Let's go get a fire hose!

DANNY: Do you mean it?

ANDY: Of course!

DANNY: All right! You won't regret it, Andy I promise. THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST DAY EVER!

Download 'Fun with a fire hose' and 'I am a robot'
from Just Shocking!
484kb PDF

Note: PDF will be downloaded to your desktop or download folder

Copyright © 2012 | Andy Griffiths