Weird Stuff

by Richard Tulloch, Shane Nagle (Illustrator)

Brian Hobble isn't much of a writer―he's more of a soccer player. (And sometimes he's not much of a soccer player either!) But one day he borrows a pink Easyflow pen from Nathan Lumsdyke during his favorite author's school visit, and suddenly he can't stop writing. Unfortunately for Brian, the pen only writes flowery, embarrassing love stories, even in his science test. Brian can't wait to give the weird pen back . . . until he realizes Cassandra Wyman is a lot more interested in writing than she is in soccer!

Genres: Fiction, Juvenile, Fantasy

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Richard Tulloch is one of Australia's most popular writers of books, plays, film, and television for young audiences. His television series', which include 150 episodes of the phenomenal BANANAS IN PYJAMAS, have reached an audience of hundreds of millions around the world. In 1998 he won his third Australian Writers' Guild AWGIE award for his play BODY AND SOUL, and was also nominated in America for the prestigious Hollywood 'Annie' award for his screenplay for the animated feature film FERN GULLY II: THE MAGICAL RESCUE.

Of his 40 children's books, DANNY IN THE TOYBOX, BEING BAD FOR THE BABYSITTER, COCKY COLIN and the BARRY THE BURGLAR series were nominated by children for KOALA awards as their all-time favourite books. His most recent titles, WEIRD STUFF, FREAKY STUFF, and AWESOME STUFF, have been very popular.

Reviews

[Khush · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird Stuff is about a boy named Brian Hobble who is a penalty taker of his school's soccer team, Garunga Glory. When his pen is out of ink, he borrows an Easyflow pen from Nathan Lumsdyke and the pen starts writing love stories. Brian does not want to let go of the pen because he starts to realize that Cassie Wyman, the girl of his dreams likes writing more than she likes soccer.

[Nao · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because the teacher recommended. This book is about what happens in your life of the school or relationship between friends, and that book has a lot of different stories.For example, in the soccer game, the main character is not good at playing soccer.But he got a penalty kick, and then he got scored.I like this book.Because that book has various stories and says about every day, so I sometimes compare to that book with my ISB's real life. So I really recommend this book.

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed by Jeremey for TeensReadToo.com

Soccer star Brian Hobble (AKA the Ice Man) is like any normal kid. He likes soccer, but what he likes even more than soccer is girls! One in particular - Cassandra Wyman - but she pretends that Brian isn't even alive.

After a big soccer game (that Brian helped win) he feels as though he is on top of the world. Things get better when Brian's favorite author, Lancelot Cummins, visits his school. Everyone is amazed that the author who wrote Brown Gunk From Mars, The Flushing, and My Mom is a Zombie Killer has come to their ordinary school to help them learn English.

Mr. Cummins gives the class an assignment, to write what would happen in fifteen minutes while observing their neighborhood. Brian, not being much of a writer, tries to waste time (i.e. taking awhile to write his name). Once he begins to write his pen runs out of ink and the school nerd, Nathan Lumsdyke, lends Brian one of his.

Brian turns his nose up at the pink Easyflow pen, but nevertheless begins writing. His penmanship with this pen transcends from messy to neat and flowery. Before he knows it, Brian has written four-and-a-half pages.

Seeing Brian's long piece, Mr. Cummins asks him to read it aloud and Brian, who does not remember what he has written, is intrigued himself. Brian and the whole class learns that instead of writing about his neighborhood, the pen had written a romantic love story! His story is both captivating and stimulating, but he is still made fun of by the guys in his grade.

Brian soon discovers that the pen only writes embarrassing love stories (after he wrote about two frogs in love for his science test). He can't wait to give the pen back to Nathan, but when Brian discovers that Lancelot Cummins and, more importantly, Cassandra Wyman, are interested in what he writes, who knows what will happen?

[Medford Children's Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian Hobble leads an ordinary middle school life until weird stuff starts happening. First he becomes a superstar on the soccer team when usually no one ever notices him on the field, then his hero Lancelot Cummins picks him to be in a Special Interest Writing Group when he usually can't write more than a paragraph. Could it be the mysterious pink pen he borrowed from the class nerd? or is he just lucky?
I liked Brian as a person. He's very funny and talented even though he doesn't seem it know it himself. His cartoons scattered throughout the book are realistic and comical as he tries to understand the people and events around him.

Good for grade 4 and up.

Food for Thought: Did you ever do something that you thought you wouldn't be talent at, but you ended up surprising yourself?

[carissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian Hobble isn't much of a writer - he's more of a soccer player. (And sometimes he's not much of a soccer player either!) But one day he borrows a pink Easyflow pen from Nathan Lumsdyke during his favorite author's school visit, and suddenly he can't stop writing. Unfortunately for Brian, the pen only writes flowery, embarrassing love stories, even in his science test. Brian can't wait to give the weird pen back . . . until he realizes Cassandra Wyman is a lot more interested in writing than she is in soccer

[Sylvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brian Hobble isn't much of a writer - he's more of a soccer player. (And sometimes he's not much of a soccer player either!) But one day he borrows a pink Easyflow pen from Nathan Lumsdyke, and he can't stop writing. Unfortunately for Brian, the pen only writes flowery, embarrassing love stories, even in his science test.
Omigod! Brian Hobble is such a funny character. I can't stop laughing.

[Arel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story could be a relatable story. It's about a 'soccer star' and modest 'writer' called Brian. He is a normal boy who has a crush on a girl called Cassandra Wyman. He borrowed pink Easyflow pen from Nathan Lumsdyke and couldn't stop writing flowery love stories. Realizing that his crush is interested in writing... Read this book and find out more about this story.

[Timo]

the book was very interesting. the book is good because the character developes quickly so I know what the character is like. I think the story line was very unique. I enjoyed this book because it had a funny twist on school and romance.

[Matthewd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really good book. I like this book because it is funny and its not hard to understand. This book is a good book for not advanced readers but intermediate readers.I would recommend it to kids my age. I can't wait to get the second book

[Wwjdissac · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a story which showed a kid with some funny stories in his life. So, it was pretty fun.

[Theo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book seemed really short. It wasn't that fun to read. There wasn't much going on that actually interested me.