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Souperman single work   children's fiction   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 1986... 1986 Souperman
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'A boy gets his nose stretched in an accident and is sent to his grandfather's house in the country to take his mind off it. However, his grandfather is embroiled in a decades-long feud with another old man, as they are able to transfer illnesses to each other by blowing into magic gumleaves. Later a bushfire burns the tree which had the magic leaves on it. The boy blows the last leaf and his stretched nose is gone. This was later adapted as an episode of Round The Twist. In Round The Twist a girl stretches her nose when being scared by her brothers - she falls down the tree and later she goes to the hospital and they say they can't fix her nose for three years. She doesn't want to go back to school so she goes to her grandmother's house for some time. Her grandmother is embroiled in a decades-long feud with another old man, (Foxy). There happened to be a bad bushfire that year and the grandmother helped Foxy. Later they talk about a gum tree and then they yell "THE GUM TREE!" when they arrive at the GUM TREE there is only one leaf left and the girl gets it and Foxy and the girl's grandmother and yelling "give it here!" So she runs and plays the song Click Go the Shears, and passes the stretched nose to her parents who were there at the time and then she lost her stretched nose and her brothers and father had stretched noses. The reason why Foxy and her grandmother didn't get the injury was because they had ear plugs in. After she leaves on the train she hears the park ranger say that gum leaf trees grow back. She screams and wakes up in the hospital she asks her parents to take off their masks. They do as told and their noses are the same and then before it ends there is a GUM LEAF in her hand.' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbelievable_(short_story_collection))

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Unbelievable! : More Surprising Stories Paul Jennings , Ringwood : Penguin , 1986 Z668660 1986 selected work children's fiction children's humour "Stare if you dare, into Paul Jennings' wild world. What happens when you grow younger? Where do ghosts sit their exams? How would you cope if a million birds did it on you? Where did the eyes in the bottle come from? Nine stories that you would never dream of." (Source: Trove) Ringwood : Penguin , 1986 pg. 61-68
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Funtastic Short Stories Paul Jennings , Pamela Rushby , Mary Small , Michael Rosen , Milton : Jacaranda Press , 1993 Z1439047 1993 anthology children's fiction children's Port Melbourne : Rigby Heinemann , 1995 pg. 27-38
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Paul Jennings' Weirdest Stories Paul Jennings , Camberwell : Penguin , 2006 Z1343299 2006 selected work children's fiction children's

    From the hugely popular UnCollected series comes this special selection of tales – a showcase of Paul's storytelling talents at their very best . . . and weirdest!

    Camberwell : Penguin , 2006
    pg. 301-308
Last amended 19 Jun 2020 09:06:02
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