Brain Freeze

by Oliver Phommavanh

From a dog who accidentally becomes the first animal on Mars, a hopeless chess player dealing with his sports-mad dad, and a girl whose dreams are getting too big for her bed, to a boy who has had 1000 names – so far. Not to mention, the strange boy who never seems to get brain freeze (until…), these short stories will blow your mind.

158 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 1, 2020

Reviews

[crashqueen73 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read a few of these aloud to my Year 4 class as the end of the year rolled around and I didn’t want to begin a whole novel.

Some of the short stories were nutty and perhaps a little more suited to year 5/6 but still entertaining and mostly enjoyed by the class.

The Boy with 1000 Names was the best one and it was the first we read (well placed) because then I bought the book 😂😂

Chess Nuts was would have been better if you knew the game or had at least played it.

Quaranteen was alright. The first Dog on Mars was very odd. Sweet and Sour was definitely more suited to middle schoolers and Ghost Writer was pretty good.

Overall, readable. 3 stars.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and silly, the kids enjoyed it. The stories are very 2020 current (mentioning the pandemic) and it’s very Australian, which is a nice change from reading all the American stories. Some characters appear from his previous books too.

[Sharlene Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very clever as usual. I loved the ‘COVID-catch-up’ with Vee and Thai-riffic ... captured quarantine/isolation for kids in Aus perfectly but not all the stories were about that which is so important🥰🥰🥰

[idreamofallthebooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful and humorous collection of short stories – perfect for upper primary school students! I honestly cannot wait to use some of these in the classroom.

Thank you @puffinbooksaus and @penguinkidsaustralia for gifting me this book to read!

[Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything I've read by Oliver so far has been great!