An off-world trader and a green civil rights activist walk into a trendy restaurant on a desert planet...This unusual and provocative short story by Sara Zaske was shortlisted for The Reader's 2012 Short Story competition.After a war that nearly wipes everyone out, famine becomes the biggest problem as the toxic aftermath won't allow any growth. All of the plants and animals are nearly gone and people are dwindling. Then scientist come through by setting up farms in the vacant skyscrapers, using artificial sunlight and a sophisticated watering system. This story focuses on the regular schlubs that guard the farm. The only reason that the people that remained survived the famine was because they had slow metabolisms. The remaining society consists of former fatties. Not survival of the fittest, the narrator points out, but survival of the fattest. The two friends get themselves into a bind when one of them is challenged to an honor duel by a mutant.

In a not-so-different future, an old zoo tended by a single janitor stands nearly empty and peaceful until a new intern arrives. He creates a few strange exhibits and shifts a paradigm or two in the process.Ryan warned that the things in the dead-end creek were in fact slimy, fetid, space alien freaks.And any kid dumb enough to approach their dark lair had better believe in the power of prayer. For underneath that calm surface of warm water and frog belly -waited sinister incarnate! Waited monster! Waited smelly! If that kid, so determined to make his way across, might step on some stones or some green fishy moss, or perchance he should slip and step into their sludge, then his boots, snared so tightly, would no longer budge. And no matter how hard that child strained, tugged or yanked, the Mud Gullumpers pulled harder and the boots slowly sank ‘til the child screamed in fear, and by clinging to rocks, freed his feet and ran home in his wet, soiled socks.

An entertaining, enlightening look at the art of raising self-reliant, independent children based on one Mum's experiences in Germany.'Warm and companionable . . . I closedAchtung Baby feeling more relaxed and confident. While both my kids were up a tree.' - Helen Brown, Daily MailWhen Sara Zaske moved from Oregon to Berlin with her husband and toddler, she was surprised to discover that German parents give their children a great deal of freedom. In Berlin, kids walk to school by themselves, ride the subway alone, cut food with sharp knives and even play with fire. German parents did not share her parental fears and their children were thriving. Was she doing the opposite of what she intended, which was to raise capable children?Through her own family's often funny experiences as well as interviews with other parents, teachers, and experts, Zaske shares the many unexpected parenting lessons she learned from living in Germany. Achtung Babyreveals that today's Germans know something that other parents don't (or have perhaps forgotten) about raising kids with 'selbstandigkeit' (self-reliance), and provides many new and practical ideas parents everywhere can use to give their own children the freedom they need to grow into responsible, independent adults.