Selby Screams (13 page)
Authors: Duncan Ball
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, 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 …
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 ………
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
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers
, Australia
First published in Australia in 1989
This edition published in 2011
by HarperCollins
Publishers
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.
HarperCollins
Publishers
25 Ryde Road, Pymble, Sydney, NSW 2073, Australia
31 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 0627, New Zealand
A 53, Sector 57, Noida, UP, India
77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London, W6 8JB, United Kingdom
2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada
10 East 53rd Street, New York NY 10022, USA
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