by Duncan Ball
“One more minute,” Selby thought as he trotted ahead, “and I’d have given them something to really think about!”
SEVEN WARNING SIGNS OF A TALKING DOG
PIGGOTT PLACE
Duncan Ball
‘Tell me what I should do with my life!’ Bert wailed. ‘Should I catch a boat to South America? Should I learn to play the trombone? Should I start an ostrich farm? I need your help! Give me a sign, any sign!’
Sadly, Bert was talking to the only one he trusted in the whole world: Gazza, his stuffed goat. And, once again, the goat wasn’t talking …
Piggott Place is a riotous but touching comedy about twelve-year-old Bert Piggott as he struggles to keep his family of dreamers, ratbags and scoundrels together. Everyone hates the Piggotts and now the council is going to evict them from their once beautiful mansion, Piggott Place. But the authorities haven’t bargained on Bert and his young friend Antigone (would-be star of stage and screen) and their crazy scheme. The question is: can two kids take on a world of adults and win?
PIGGOTTS IN PERIL
Duncan Ball
Piggotts in Peril begins with the shy and sensitive Bert Piggott accidentally finding the map to pirate treasure hidden many years ago by his great-great-great-great-grandfather. At first a quest for untold wealth seems the answer to all his problems but getting it means bringing along his scheming, ratbag family. Little does he know that what lies ahead are problems that even the pessimistic Bert could never imagine: the terror of turbulent seas aboard a ‘borrowed’ boat, capture by pirates, being marooned on the Isle of the Dead, and more.
Piggotts in Peril is a warm, adventure-comedy about the origins of the universe, the evolution of humankind — and pirate treasure.
SELBY’S JOKE BOOK
SELBY SNAPS!
Selby, the only talking dog in Australia and, perhaps, the world, is back in the snappiest collection of fur-raising and fun-filled adventures yet! So hold on tight as you rocket through space and time with the perilous pooch as he deals with a nasty knight and an even nastier dragon!
And take a deep breath as Aunt Jetty tears through town on a runaway toilet leaving a trail of destruction; then Selby is captured and taken away to be the ruler of a mysterious jungle tribe; and if that isn’t enough he falls head over heels in love with the most gorgeous girl-dog he’s ever seen!
But the big question is: will the world learn that Selby can talk? Only you can answer that question, so grab this eighth collection of stories and read it, and then scream at the top of your lungs:
I know the answer and I’m not telling!
SELBY SCRAMBLED
Selby, the only talking dog in Australia, and perhaps the world, is one splendiferous pooch.
What other dog could scale the glass walls of the world’s tallest skyscraper, save a shipload of passengers from certain death, match wits with an all-powerful Evil Genius who is out to tell Selby’s secret, become a star radio shock jock, and take on the world’s top soccer star at his own game?
And just when Selby thinks that he’s in the clear at last, along comes his greatest challenge — Frank, the mind-scrambling robot monster …
About the Author
Duncan Ball is an Australian author and scriptwriter, best known for his popular books for children. Among his most-loved works are the Selby books of stories plus the collections Selby’s Selection, Selby’s Joke Book and Selby’s Side-Splitting Joke Book. Some of these books have also been published in New Zealand, Germany, Japan and the USA, and have won countless awards, most of which were voted by the children themselves.
Among Duncan’s other books are the Emily Eyefinger series about the adventures of a girl who was born with an eye on the end of her finger, and the comedy novels Piggott Place and Piggotts in Peril, about the frustrations of twelve-year-old Bert Piggott forever struggling to get his family of ratbags and dreamers out of the trouble they are constantly getting themselves into.
Duncan lives in Sydney with his wife, Jill, and their cat, Jasper. Jasper often keeps Duncan company while he’s writing and has been known to help by walking on the keyboard. Once, returning to his work, Duncan found the following word had mysteriously appeared on screen: ikantawq ………
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Emily Eyefinger
Emily Eyefinger, Secret Agent
Emily Eyefinger and the Lost Treasure
Emily Eyefinger and the Black Volcano
Emily Eyefinger’s Alien Adventure
Emily Eyefinger and the Devil Bones
Emily Eyefinger and the Balloon Bandits
Emily Eyefinger and the Ghost Ship
Piggott Place
Piggotts in Peril
Selby’s Secret
Selby Speaks
Selby Screams
Selby Supersnoop
Selby Spacedog
Selby Snowbound
Selby Surfs
Selby Snaps!
Selby’s Joke Book
Selby Splits
Selby’s Selection
Selby’s Stardom
Selby’s Side-Splitting Joke Book
Selby Sorcerer
Selby Scrambled
Copyright
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia
First published in Australia in 1989
This edition published in 2011
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Duncan Ball 1989
Illustration copyright © Allan Stomann 1989
The right of Duncan Ball to be identified as the author and the right of Allan Stomann to be identified as the illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Ball, Duncan
Selby Screams/Duncan Ball
ISBN: 978-0-2072-0023-6 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978-0-7304-9523-9 (ePub)
1. Dogs – Juvenile fiction. I. Stomann, Allan. II. Title.
A823’.3
Cover and internal design by Christa Edmonds
