The 13-Storey Treehouse

Readers of this new farcical adventure series are invited to ‘climb into the world’s craziest treehouse’. It is a bold claim but residents Andy and Terry (author, illustrator and main characters!) have gone to extreme lengths to prove it.

Terry and Andy have filled their custom-made treehouse with a bowling alley, see-through swimming pool, man-eating shark tank and giant catapult… amongst many, many other exciting things. Perhaps most curious of all is the secret underground laboratory, where Terry and Andy have invented, amongst many, many other exciting things, a machine that follows them around and automatically shoots marshmallows into their mouths whenever they are hungry.

This sense of playful invention shines forth from every page, as Andy describes to readers the pair’s typical day. However, though the day starts out in a normal enough way – affording cats the power of flight using canary yellow paint, vaporising Brussel sprouts etc – things soon take a turn for the terrifying when the pair receive a video call from their publisher, Mr Big Nose. Mr Big Nose is not happy about Terry and Andy’s failure to deliver their next book on time and demands, in no uncertain terms, that the new story be ready by 5 o’ clock the next day… or else.

Sadly, Terry and Andy suffer from a serious inability to focus on one particular task, no matter how important, and this, somewhat bizarrely, leads to a visit from a lustful sea monster, an infestation of mayhem making monkeys and a terrorising attack from a giant gorilla. It becomes increasingly unlikely that the friends will ever complete their book.

Fortunately, nothing could stand in the way of Andy and Terry’s undeniable talents; even if the only things they have ready for the book, with moments to spare, are an enthralling close-up image of Terry’s finger, and the opening line: ‘Once upom (sic) a time…’!

The line between fiction and reality is blurred delightfully throughout this manic tale – it is extremely easy to imagine that Andy and Terry really do live in an enormous, fun-filled treehouse where they concoct comical stories for their fans. And, in the next instalment, the treehouse is even taller!

Now read our Q&A interview with Andy Griffiths.