I'm Being Stalked by a Moonshadow

by Doug MacLeod

Did you know that grasshoppers hear with their legs? And a pregnant goldfish is called a twit? Seth Parrot knows hundreds of little facts like these, because his father tells them to him. What Seth doesn't know Where do you meet muscular girls? How do you make them fall in love with you? Would a different haircut help? Is credit card fraud a good idea? What on earth is a moonshadow? By the end of the story, Seth will know the answer to four of these questions. They won't come from his father. They'll come from a very wise magazine called Dolly. From the author of Tumble Turn comes a hilarious new novel about muscles, love and a flower-hating Eastern European.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Humor, Teen, Australia, Romance

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 6, 2006

About the author

Doug MacLeod is a Melbourne-based writer and TV producer who has worked on many of Australia's most popular comedy shows, including The Comedy Company, Fast Forward, Big Girls' Blouse, The Micallef Program and SeaChange. He was also the script editor on Kath and Kim.

While he enjoys the TV work, he prefers writing books for young people. After leaving his full-time job in TV, Doug wrote the teenage novel Tumble Turn, which was published by Penguin in 2003, and is on the syllabus at Deakin University.

On The Cards is a book of ridiculous greeting card rhymes with an introduction by Ben Elton that Doug wrote for the international charity Comic Relief in 2002. A second book of creepy rhymes, Spiky, Spunky, My Pet Monkey, was released in 2004. Both books are illustrated by Craig Smith and published by Penguin. Craig and Doug again collaborated on Leon Stumble’s Book of Stupid Fairytales, published by Working Title in 2005.

Doug’s second young adult novel for Penguin, I’m Being Stalked by a Moonshadow (2006), was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier’s Awards, and published in America by Front Street Press.

Two fantasy novels, Kevin the Troll (2007) and The Clockwork Forest (2008), came next and were also published by Penguin. The Clockwork Forest was presented as a play at The Sydney Theatre Company in 2008.

Doug’s third young adult novel, Siggy and Amber, was released by Penguin in 2009.

But he’s probably best known for a book called Sister Madge’s Book of Nuns, which was published in 1986. He's less well known for The Life of a Teenage Body-snatcher, which was published by Penguin in 2010 and is a much better book, especially if you like your comedy a little black.

Recent non-book-related activities include co-devising the animated TV series, Dogstar, for which he has won two Australian Writers’ Guild Awards and the inaugural John Hinde Award for Science Fiction. There are 52 episodes. Doug wrote half of them. Philip Dalkin wrote the other half. The show plays all over the world and premiered on the BBC.

With satirist John Clarke and composer Alan John he wrote a play based on May Gibbs’ famous children’s book, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. It was directed by Neil Armfield and premiered at The Sydney Festival in 2007.

With comedian Tracy Harvey he co-wrote the musical Call Girl in 2009, which had two Melbourne seasons.

In 2008 Doug received the Fred Parsons Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to Australian Comedy at the Australian Writers’ Guild Awards.

Reviews

[Kathy Lane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is completely absurd...though in a good way. 14-year old Seth Parrot lives with his quirky family in Australia. His dad begins a feud with a city inspector when he "accidentally" flicks manure (which the family was using to line their walls) on Mr. Raven. When Seth gets a crush on a muscular kickboxing girl, he finds that she is Raven's daughter. In order to give his life some semblance of normalcy he is trying to woo Miranda, avoid her ex-boyfriend who keeps punching him and get his parents sex life back on track. This is crazy and ridiculous and I liked it a lot. YAH. (Kip)



I must have missed the tip reference, but veranda escapes me - bangs? I couldn't find veranda (other than patio) in Aussie slang or dictionary sites.
I was a bit taken short by asking what countries were called before they broke up (Gondwanaland)??? I think the editor could have replaced that with continents. But maybe that's nit picking.

I enjoyed the book. Loved Carrot's quirks, the lovely difference in voices, the change in tempo and cadence with MacLeod's writing. Absurd, bizarre and genuine.
I may be looking for the heart wrenching, major self-realization or survival to make me hesitate in giving this a hearty YAY. It is a Yay and I'll be glad to discuss with others. (KDL)

http://thumbsupaward.blogspot.com/sea...

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I have read in years. I stayed up an hour and a half past my usual bedtime to finish this book (can we not talk about how much of a loser I am? Thanks).

I had pretty much resigned myself to the thought that no book I was ever going to read could even approach the awesomeness level of Whales on Stilts! I stand corrected. This book is AMAZING. The protagonist is so bizarre! There's a female bodybuilder named Opal Honey! Family bonding involves peeing on the backyard lemon tree!

Any blahblahblah raving I write about this book will probably just be wasted, but SERIOUSLY IT'S SO FRICKING GOOD. A friend of mine edited it, and (wow, I hope Erin doesn't have goodreads) I honestly didn't expect it to be very good. Not because of him, because he's pretty brilliant, but because I had some preconceived notion that every YA book on the Front Street imprint was probably kind of a wash. I was so wrong. I WAS SO WRONG. OH MY GOSH PLEASE READ THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY. I want to take to the streets and tell people how funny and fantastic it is. READ IT READ IT READ IT. It is worth the entire hardcover price. Read it even if you are busy. You will NOT regret it.

[Gwen the Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seth Parrot is having a rough life. His rather odd parents insist that building a house out of manure bricks is good for both insulation and the environment. His brother Jack looks like a model and has tons of girlfriends. Seth is going through an awkward phase, which is not going to help him attract a girlfriend with big muscles, something he finds very attractive. Then Seth meets Miranda at the local rec center, where he is taking a drama class – she is in kickboxing and has the requisite muscles. Miranda seems to be attracted to Seth in spite of his weird hair and the random facts he spouts when nervous. Things are definitely looking up until Seth’s dad and the neighborhood environmental health officer start a fight and pull mean pranks on each other. The turf war starts to affect the whole family – Seth’s mom wants her husband to just stop the antagonism and Seth discovers that the girl of his dreams is the daughter of his father’s arch-nemesis! Can Seth and Miranda have a successful relationship in spite of the bad feelings between their families? Even more concerning, will Seth’s parents’ marriage survive the stress of the turf war? Told in a refreshing, hilarious, and quirky voice, readers will root for Seth Parrot all the way to the end. The author includes a note on Australian slang.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Australian story is laugh-out-loud funny. Seth has a quirky family that seem to be pretty functional in their dysfunctionality. (When they get mad at each other they say "Rude gestures to you!" which gets the point across without being mean or hateful.)

Seth longs to meet a girl with big muscles and he does. Unfortunately she is the daughter of his father's nemesis, the local city inspector. The story is light hearted and is a quick read. Give it to kids who like funny books and they will thank you.

[Charlou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny. Giggles throughout. Seth goes after the muscular girl of his dreams with advice from a girls magazine. Unfortunately his hippie father and her establishment father are in the middle of a feud.

[Megan Baragwanath · Rating 1 out of 5]

Something that really irritated me about the book was the sexual themes; “Miranda brushed past me and I caught a whiff of Dencorub. Alarmed, I realised I was experiencing a disturbance in the trousers. (This is what Jack and I called it. We knew the correct term but preferred a disturbance in the trousers.).” This irritated me because I did not want to read about sexual themes or problems. When I read a book, I read it to feel better, to feel happier not to feel disgusted and irritated. Although I can tell the writer is trying to teach us about Seth as a character, they can do that in other ways than making Seth a pervert; “Mum and Dad would run off to the master bedroom, and since we were still in the luxury caravan, that was only eighteen centimetres away. They had a very healthy physical relationship.” The book did irritate me when it talked about sexual themes like that because I did not choose to read humorous fiction to read about a disgusting 14-year-old boy. You might be thinking as a boy I might enjoy this. That is all well and good, but if the author had more obviously targeted this book toward male readers I would not be quite so irritated reading about the sexual themes within. But they did not; the author left the book targeted to all genders as a simple humorous fiction, not a boy's kind of humorous fiction where possibly sexual themes and references are funny. In society what children are so disgusting that they listen in to what their parents are doing in their bedroom? If a 14-year-old did that today, they would be labelled as a pervert and probably have to see a counsellor because it simply is not okay. I understand labelling them as a pervert could be unfair because of the hormones and everything else they experience, but my question is simply why do I need to read about this?

[Zoe MacKenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a boy (Seth Parrot) and his family who live in Australia. Seth's father has already gotten into a feud with the environmental health officer (Mr. Raven) with only living there for a couple of days. Little do they know that their children are in love. But with both father's hating each other, they can't express how they feel. I really enjoyed this book because it showed you what it was like to live in Australia and it was somewhat relatable. I would read this book if you're a boy who wants to know how to get a girl or if you just like weird books in general because this book is definitely a weird one (a good weird).

[Kelly Manske · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great, quirky coming of age story.

[Kimm · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a sweet, funny, endearing, captivating story! I traded for this book because I liked the title, having just renewed my interest in old Cat Stevens' songs. I had no idea what this book was about, except that it seemed to be written for readers under the age of 18. I found myself laughing so often and each time I did, I loved the characters even more. I liked how Seth got along with his parents, how his relationship with his brother was realistic, how the old hippie mindset played into the story (the walls of the house, peeing on the lemon tree, the songs, the frankness of sexuality), and how different Seth's views on attractive girls were compared to the usual Young Adult book. It is reminiscent of "chick lit" but from a boy's point-of-view.

I kept being reminded of the scene in the movie Donnie Darko where Donnie walks Gretchen home from school. The atmosphere and emotion of the story was very much like that scene - sweet, funny, real, flirty-nervousness in the boy's part, confidence in the girl's part. That's my favorite scene in the movie but it only lasts about a minute. Moonshadow takes that minute and extends it, which is very satisfying. :)

My only complaint is that the book wasn't longer. I read it in one night - it was that enjoyable. I would welcome a sequel or a series of Seth books. This is a book I will be keeping in my library, reading many more times, and recommending to others. Oh, yes, I should say ... I'm well into my 40's.

[Watermelon Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

FIRST IMPRESSION:
The title. It got my curiosity in the first place. But I kind of expected it to be a fantasy novel, so I was surprised to see it as a contemporary one. I love the cover! It's adorable.

WRITING STYLE:
Oh my, I never laughed so much in a book! Amazing writing style. It seemed as if the author was funny even at moments he didn't realise he was. A complete refreshment from many other YA fiction I've read.

PLOT:
There isn't much of a plot, to be honest. It's pretty much a book with a zillion little plots stuck together, but the writer can pull it off. I got sucked into this story after the first couple of pages, though the first few lines were boring.

CHARACTERS:
Seth was epic. Miranda was okay. I loved his brother. And his parents were amazing! Seth is so interesting and amazing, I don't think I'd be focussed on his looks. His personality is amazingly awesome.

OVERALL:
A light read with no fantasy aspects. It shows a lot of humourous events and made me laugh more times than I can count.

AMOUNT OF STARS:
4

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lighthearted and sweet, not to mention hilarious, this book takes place in a small Australian community where kooky characters abound and poor Seth, wannabe-playwright, knows them all. In fact, he's one of them. Though I'm no longer an awkward teenager, I could relate to Seth's discomfort with his first real-life crush (as opposed to his poster-on-the-wall crush), the embarassment he feels for his family which directly contradicts the love he also feels for them and the sometimes-loathing of an attention-seeking younger sibling. Though I did not have to deal with a father who waged war on a town council member, I do remember neighbors that we never really liked. Of course, we never blew up each other's mailboxes.
The lessons learned in the novel are delivered gently, with humor and in a non-preachy fashion. While they may not be overly-deep lessons, they are, nonetheless, important.
I really enjoyed this book and laughed loudly throughout.
Highly recommended.

[Patb1629 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never know what to make of YA novels. The characters always seem so much more sophisticated and aware than I remember being. Would I have been so observant, so sophisticated, so witty, so relatively calm in the usually fairly dramatic situations they find themselves in? If these stories are meant to be models for behavior, they're probably doing a good job. If not, I remain perplexed.

I'm Being Stalked by a Moonshadow is a pretty good example of the genre. The adults are certainly depicted realistically, and the way their anger escalates over petty affronts is all too accurate. A certain amount of glossing over serious problems is troubling. Perhaps atitudes are different in Australia.

[Kricket · Rating 3 out of 5]

an odd little book that i found while weeding the collection and took home because i felt sorry for it. seth parrot lives with bizarre parents and handsome younger brother in a house partially built with dung. his father and the local inspector constantly argue about the propriety of the house. meanwhile, seth falls in love with the inspector's daughter, who has the big muscles he has always dreamed of. seth comes off as a very young 14 so i might actually recommend this to middle school students over teen, but it was a quick, amusing read.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Omg this book was hilarious! The epic battle between Seth's dad (Mr. Parrot!) and Mr. Raven was fantastic, and Seth was such a fun character! I loved him and Miranda, how he just says whatever the hell comes into his mind without really thinking, haha.

And the local newspaper with its hideous spelling cracked me up - especially when we suddenly get "a Mr Zoran Krkic Please Check Spelling" lol! Oh and Zoran (and Mrs Zoran too) was amazing. So much love.

I need to read more of this guy's books!!

[Leanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at the library because of the title and the blurb. The 14 year old narrator cracks me up especially as he describes his hippy parents, psychosomatic brother, and the muscled girl of his dreams.

That said, I continue to be uncomfortable with this type of YA fiction that is so frank about subjects that were taboo when I was younger. I am still amazed that The Absolutely True diary of a Part-Time Indian is accepted as assigned reading in so many schools. Moonshadow is much tamer, but I wouldn't be adding this novel to a school reading list either.

[Alethea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite a series of reviews that made much of the narrator’s unconventional (hippie) parents, this is a hilarious and brilliantly-done but not overly unconventional sort of YA book. What it’s about is budding romance and dealing with family and friends and the rest of the world—it’s just that the romance is complicated by her father’s disdain for his parents mud-plastered house, and the friends include an insane Serbian gardener…

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful! Set in Australia so the language is slightly different than American English, which adds to the fun. I liked the characters, especially 14 year old Seth - they all had a quirkiness about them that made the story that much more interesting. It's not laugh out loud funny but made me smile a lot.

[Eliza · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny, light hearted book with a clever storyline, I really enjoyed this book. It was probably a bit easy for my reading standard but i was recommended it as a bit of fun and found it most enjoyable. Written by an australian authour, i enjoyed the language and the vernacural subtleties of modern Australian dialect.

[Catie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute story of young love, Moonshadow explores the awkward phases of nerdy teenagers through the use of subtle and bawdy humor and a simple yet entertaining and inventive plot. Read it and Cat Stevens never leaves your ears, really.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, appropriate for a young middle school boy.

[Janice]

kip from kdl liked it, part of the thumbs up

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

BBYA

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

So so random.

[Christy]

I'm Being Stalked by a Moonshadow by Doug MacLeod (2007)

[Natasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it because im really into the ARTS of acting!!! Its worth the read!...............

[Andrew Porteus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seth Parrot is an aspiring playwright, son of profoundly odd parents (their house in the Australian suburbs was built by his family using daub

[Tressa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm Being Stalked by a Moonshadow was quirky, funny, and odd. I liked it.

[Dan Verkys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it