Contents Smoke Signals from the Lion Park David Metzenthen, Ten Easy Ways to Avoid Confusing an Echidna with a Pineapple Douglas Little, Frog Guts Dyan Blacklock, The Timeless Order Pauline Cartwright, The Smell of Cows Diana Noonan, Reptile Girl Carmel Bird, The Horse I Backed Michael Leunig, Gorillagram Andy Griffiths, The Smell of Leather Brian Caswell, Breakout in Shed 101 Fiona Farrell, The Boy Who Wouldn't Get Out of the Pool Libby Gleeson, Snookle Paul Jennings Blasters: Fears and Fantasies, Animal Tails and Risks and Challenges are the first three titles in a series of theme-based short story collections designed to have maximum appeal for lower secondary students. The stories have also been selected with the needs of busy teachers in mind-teachers who require high-interest material that will entertain students as well as develop their awareness of particular issues and provoke further thought and discussion. Key features: stories range in length from 1000 to 1500 words-short enough to be read by most students in a single lesson, all the stories have been selected for maximum appeal for lower secondary students, stories have a sense of humour and are not afraid to take chances, a wide range of writing styles and subject matter is covered, each volume includes a range of stories suitable for students of all abilities, the stories are written by some of the best Australian and New Zealand writers for this age group, including a number of up-and-coming writers.