Exploring Short Stories Volume 1

Exploring Short Stories provides 20 short stories for junior and middle secondary students . The stories come from well known and highly regarded authors from around the world and represent a range of write styles and types of short story. The stories in each volume are grouped according to the feature of the short story genre they best represent.

Volume 1 Contents

Introduction

A. THE READER

I. Sequencing

• 'The Smart Dog' by Dal Stivens

II. Predicting the Ending

• 'I Used To Live Here Once' by Jean Rhys
•  'The Norfolk Island Pine Tree' by Brian Matthews

III. Articulating the Themes

•  'The Star Beast' by Nicholas Stuart Gray

B. THE TEXT

I. Intertextuality

•  'Who Dares Wins' by N. M. Cooper
•  'Noah and the Flood' King James Version of The Bible
•  'The Windows of Heaven' by John Brunner

II. Some Narrative Techniques

a. Unreliable Narrators

• 'I Fooled You, Didn't I?' by Michael Edom (aged 13)
• 'Jupiter Doke, Brigadier General' by Ambrose Bierce

b. A Shift of Perspective

•  'Space Fantasies' by Amy Burroughs (aged 13)
•  'Just Right?' by Steven Langsford (aged 13)
•   'Nescience' by Jim Finkemeyer (aged 16)
•   'A Timeless Observation' by Heath Manners (aged 18)

c. A Twist in the Tale

•   'Conscience in Art' by 'O. Henry' (William Sydney Porter)
•   'The Specimen' by Ray Mason (aged 16)

d. Indeterminate Endings

• 'In the Garden' by Petrina Smith
• 'The Fly–Paper' by Elizabeth Taylor

e. Parallel Narration

• 'Tiger in the Snow' by Daniel Wynn Barber

 III. Same But Different

• 'The Loaded Dog' by Henry Lawson
• 'Moon–Face' by Jack London