The Great Brain (6 page)

Paul Stafford is an author and literacy consultant, specialising in reluctant male readers and writers, and works in schools across Australia. He founded and heads the award-winning Dead Bones Society, an all-boys writing lab operating out of the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum after closing time. His latest book, You're History, Mate!, tells the stories of the dingbats, dropkicks, dills, duds and disasters in Australian history.

 

He lives on a farm outside Bathurst with his wife, Catarina, and daughter, Matilda.

When Principal Skullwater bets on the Interghouls' Cricket Cup, the pressure is on the werewolf cricket team. Their team are rubbish, their opponents are pros, and if they lose the match they're expelled from school. Desperate, team captain Jason-Jock Werewolf trawls through his ‘magic' book, a publication so shonky I could've written it. It advises they dig up the skeleton of a professional cricketer, grind the bones, and imbibe the slop – and they actually do it. I never claimed they were gifted. Place your bets …

 

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Nathan's father, the Grim Reaper, doesn't trust him with a scythe. And for good reason, because this kid's dangerous. He gives Nathan the next best thing – the ancestral book of curses,
The 101 Damnations
– but only after Nathan promises faithfully never to use it. Like that's going to happen …

Now there's an assassin coming to whack the principal, the deputy is a nanny-goat, the family heirloom is torn to shreds, and suddenly Mother Grim-Reaper wises up and demands
The 101 Damnations
be returned, now.

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It's the annual handball competition at Horror High, and the heat is definitely on. Tony Bones-Jones is the molten-hot favourite, but an unidentified masked assailant has come roaring up through the ranks. The Bonester isn't worried. He's dispatched the best Horror High could throw at him. But this masked opponent is different – it's as if he can anticipate Tony's every move. Is there some devilry at work here?

Two champions, two destinies … Revenge will be sweet.

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