Adventures Unlimited: The Land of the Lost Things

Fans of the 13 Storey Treehouse series will be delighted to learn that its author has branched out into the realm of adventure stories. The Land of Lost Things introduces a new world that is unlike any other story setting, and a host of new characters that are equally unique.

The book invites you to ‘lose yourself in the Land of Lost Things’ and the author backs this up by taking the very unusual approach of writing in the second person throughout: ‘Remember when we went to the Land of the Lost Things for my lost lucky rabbit’s foot and then we got lost too?’

It’s a disconcerting approach to begin with and readers may take a few chapters to tune in, but it is an engaging way of making young readers feel part of the action. And what a lot of action there is! The two heroes (‘You’ and ‘Me’) fly across the pages, from forests to mountain ranges and rivers to desert islands. It is never especially clear what we are looking for, as each time we find something, we tend to lose something else. At one stage, we even lose the plot (literally) and a helpful talking book called Plotty has to come along and help us to find it again so that the story can continue.

Plotty is just one of a whole cast of characters who are deliciously random. A furious talking bull is on the lookout for his temper, and is aided by a flying watch (‘time flies’) and a devious, double-crossing fist-headed man called Johnny Knucklehead. All are capable of delivering the unexpected and they repeatedly fall out, fight and reconcile with one another before teleporting off to some other part of the narrative.

The combination of such fickle characters with the truly unlimited setting of the Land of Lost Things results in a feeling of total unpredictability – arguably even more so than in Griffiths’ Treehouse stories. In this series, he has all but removed the established rules of genre and storytelling … and why not? Removing such traditional things leaves even more room for the funny stuff – and there is lots of funny stuff.

Comic highlights include a rainstorm of lost socks and the world’s longest walking of the plank: a brilliant, generous visual gag with all sorts of accompanying comic details. As well as word play and hilarious observational jokes, there are funny slapstick moments, and all are expertly brought to life in lively, energetic illustrations that adorn every page.

The second-person voice can be grating at times, and the extent of the randomness might be a little too much for some young story-lovers, but there is so much to laugh at in Griffiths’ new adventure series that it seems very likely to be another big hit for young audiences.