Tom Jones Saves the World

By Steven Herrick

"I hate that wall Everytime I go for a bike-ride Mum says, "Stay within the walls". So I ride around in circles, Like a circus animal. It's a prison. A prison for kids." Dumb things become important when you're old. At least that's what Tom reckons like living in a guarded gate community, filling the three spare rooms with a bottle top collection or secretly belly dancing while everyone's out. When Tom meets Cleo the snake charmer, together they break-out, discover a bull that hasn't become a hamburger, visit Tom's forbidden grandfather and catch and boil yabbies by Murchison Creek. Another funny, quirky adventure about friendship, families and saving the world, from popular award-winning storyteller Steven Herrick.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Queensland Press
• Release date: Apr 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9780702252204

Steven Herrick

Steven Herrick is one of Australia's most popular poets. His books for teens include Love, Ghosts, & Facial Hair; A Place Like This; and The Simple Gift.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title Page

Chapter One: Tom Jones and the Bottle Top Collection

Dead parents

Thomas

The house

A gated community

Arnold

Our old town

Barbara

Shock! Horror! Belly!

School

Class 6 W

Bribery

Time and motion

Money

Chapter Two: Grandpa Jones and the Funeral

Grandpa Jones

Shock! Horror! Drunk!

The Grandpa Jones list of things to do at a funeral

The moon and the stars

The deal

Chapter Three: Cleo and the Escape Plan

Cleo and the pinhead parents

Aunt Ruth and Uncle Robert

Cleo, the snake, and how to be instantly popular

Tom and the snake girl

Tom and Cleo

Cleo’s bright idea

The plan

Cleo’s house

Cleo, the archeologist

Friends in prison

Tom, the gardener

Tom

The escape hatch

The prison gates

Chapter Four: The First Day of Freedom

Escape

Cleo—snake-charmer, escape-expert, and Queen of the Nile

The right side of the fence

The phone call

Saturday—yabbies, bulls and being a carnivore

Lunch

Snob!

Chapter Five: The Gardens of Mercy

Outside the gates, okay

Mercy Gardens

Tom’s visit

Tom and Grandpa Jones

Chapter Six: Gobbledegook, And the History of Tom’s Family

Cleo

Gobbledegook

The history of Arnie and Grandpa Jones

Thick shakes

Uncle Robert, the pop-star

Chapter Seven: Cleo, the Genius

Cleo’s bright idea # 2

Tom, bottle tops, and Cleo the genius

Cleo’s letter

Long and loud

Tom’s bottle top collection

Exclusive?

Chapter Eight: Barbara, To the Rescue!

Mercy Gardens calls

Grandpa

Tom’s dream

Slow and steady

Barbara to the rescue

Two secrets

Tom

Whose letter?

The Treasure Chest of Mystery

Cleo’s letter #2

Chapter Nine: Tom Falls In Love ... with a Dictionary!

Cleo plan # 3

My love affair with the dictionary

Dinner with Dad

Rejoice (meaning to celebrate, have fun, etc)

Thomas extends his vocabulary

Cleo

Tom

Double gobbledegook?

A virus

After three days, a breakthrough?

Breakfast

Chapter Ten: Quivering Lips, Trembling Hands, Beating Hearts and Other Stuff

Grandpa and the bottle tops from China

Quivering lips, trembling hands, beating hearts and other stuff

Thursday afternoon

Cleo, and ladders

The parcel and the possiblilities

Dead parent wish #9, or not?

Cheating

Uncle Robert and Aunt Ruth at morning tea

Like riding a bike

Murchison Creek

Bulls, Hamburgers, and Dads

The reason there are so many dead parents in books

Almost caught

Two words for a moron

Chapter Eleven: Cleo’s Last and Absolutely Final Plan

Tree

Skimming stones

What is Dad saying?

Cleo’s last and absolutely final plan

Perfect

Uncle Robert’s surprise

Strangely normal

Chapter Twelve: The Time of His Life

Saturday

The time of his life

Lunch, and music

The music

Copyright

TOM JONES SAVES THE WORLD

Steven Herrick is one of Australia’s most popular poets. He has published ten books of poetry for adults, young adults, and children.

His three verse-novels for young adults— Love, ghosts and nose hair; A place like this and the simple gift were all shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards and the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards.

Steven’s verse novel for younger readers, The Spangled Drongo, won the Patricia Wrightson Prize at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

Over the past ten years he has performed his poems throughout Australia in schools, pubs, universities, festivals, rock venues and on radio and television. He has also toured Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and Singapore. He is one of Australia’s most travelled and widely heard poets. Steven lives in the Blue Mountains with his partner and two sons.

Also by Steven Herrick

Young Adult Fiction series

Water Bombs

Love, ghosts and nose hair

A place like this

The Simple Gift

Storybridge series

My Life, My Love, My Lasagne

Poetry