Andy's Super Short Stories

Andy Griffiths is one of the most beloved children's authors in Australia.

From the chaos of his Just! series, to the sweet-natured anarchy of The 13-Storey Treehouse, Andy has spent years delighting children at home and abroad.

As the curator of the Powerhouse Materials: Paper exhibit, Andy has written a series of Super Short Stories: miniature entries into his wild and wacky world. From the tale of a stunt performer who awakens to find herself tied to the train tracks, to everything you need to know about feet, these stories are pure Andy.

If these Super Short Stories inspire you to write a bit of chaos of your own, don’t forget to check out the Powerhouse Young Writers' Challenge.

Fearless Nadia woke to find she was bound — hand and foot — to a set of train tracks. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, she could feel, hear and see a train racing towards her.

This was not the first time Fearless Nadia had been in such a situation — and given that she was a world-famous stunt queen by day and superhero by night, it probably wouldn’t be the last. But it was the third time this week and she had had enough. After a busy week of lion-taming, high-speed car chases, jumping from burning buildings and dodging bullets, she had really been looking forward to a sleep-in.

The train sounded a warning whistle and Fearless Nadia sighed. ‘I guess I’ll just have to make yet another daringly brilliant astonishing escape.’ She took a deep breath and flexed her muscles, but, to her surprise, the ropes didn’t snap.

‘Well, whaddya know?’ she said. ‘Un-snappable rope!’ This was serious.

Luckily, Fearless Nadia had spent many hours as a child developing the ability to produce laser beams from her eyes. She stared fiercely at the rope. Beams of hot red light shot out from her eyes. But the rope remained completely unburnt. ‘Amazing!’ she said. ‘This rope is un-laser-beamable as well!’

Fearless Nadia looked at the approaching train. It was only moments away. Was this the end?

She shrugged — well, as much as the rope would let her — turned her twin laser beams onto the train and watched it burn up.

Fearless Nadia closed her eyes and let out a huge sigh of relief. Maybe she would get that sleep-in after all.

Gather round people
And hear me tell
The romantic tale
Of George and Nell

Made — not born —
As ventriloquist’s dummies
(They didn’t have daddies
And they didn’t have mummies)

Though made of wood
And paper and glue
They loved each other
And their hearts were true

‘Oh Nellie,’ said George
‘I do love you’
‘Oh George,’ said Nellie
‘I love you too!’

They gazed at each other
They hugged and they kissed
But — oh no! — they were seen
By the ventriloquist!

His heart full of hate
His head full of rage
He shouted at them
From the side of the stage:

‘Cease and desist from
These amorous dealings!
You are nothing but puppets!
You don’t have any feelings!’

So later that night,
George took Nellie’s hand
And proposed to her
A daring plan

‘Let’s run away
‘To a distant land
‘Our escape forever
‘The ventriloquist’s hand

‘So we can walk
‘And talk and be free
‘And no more have to sit
‘On that ventriloquist’s knee’

So that’s what they did
And they lived long happy lives
(Well, apart from the accident
That took one of Nell’s eyes)

Until — eventually —
They came to live in this museum
Within this glass case
Where you can now see ’em.