In Selby’s hometown of Bogusville, the most famous comedian is Gary Gaggs. Unfortunately, his jokes are always of the corny variety, and even worse, he has a million of them. Of course this doesn’t stop Selby getting a good chuckle out of them, which is a real problem because he’s the only talking dog in Australia-a secret that mustn’t get out! This collection of stories is taken from previous Selby books and each features Gary Gaggs, not to mention a big helping of his terribly lame, but terribly amusing jokes. All of these stories are entertaining, and would be a good purchase for a child who has yet to be introduced to the fantastic Selby series but enjoys a good laugh. Kids who are already diehard Selby fans will likely own all these stories already, scattered throughout the previous 17 or so volumes. Nevertheless, having all the Gary Gaggs stories in a single volume is convenient if your kids get a kick out of his jokes, and although obviously aimed at younger readers, The Joke’s on Selby had even this old dog begging for more.

Stuart Dunstan is the special orders coordinator at Borders Brisbane

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