The 78-Storey Treehouse

Andy Griffiths' The 78-Storey Treehouse is a jealous, giggly adventure for 7 year olds about what happens when Hollywood decides Terry should be the star.

What happens

A big shot movie director called Mr Big Shot has come to make the Treehouse movie. There are lights, cameras and chairs with their names on. Then Terry runs past with his pants on fire (it's a long story involving an electric eel and a unicorn) and Mr Big Shot is in love.

Andy, on the other hand, is told the movie doesn't need a narrator. His part goes to Mel Gibbon. He's a gibbon. NOT a monkey, as Mel will tell you.

Andy is very, VERY put out.

He tries to keep busy. He sits on a giant unhatched egg. He spins 78 plates so hard they fly off. He scribbles so much that the scribbletorium explodes all over the set. Eventually Mr Big Shot boots him out of the tree altogether.

Even the Andy clones in Andyland would rather hang out with Terry.

This is the book where you really see how much Andy and Terry need each other. Andy is a terrible sport and he knows it. He's rude to Mel ("Go eat a banana, Monkey-boy!") and then sorry. He sulks. He accuses Terry of stealing his chips and takes him to court, where the only witness is a very angry duck.

We've probably all been there. Your best friend gets picked for something and you don't, and suddenly everything they do is annoying. It's quite comforting to watch Andy be that cross and still be loved (and still be very funny about it).

There's a mystery running underneath too. Andy keeps spotting cows in trench coats with microphones. Nobody believes him. Andy says there's a spy cow hiding on every single page, so your reader might want to go back and hunt for them!

It's a very silly book, with a lot of heart under the nonsense.

What to read next

If they want more, The 91-Storey Treehouse comes after this one. Andy and Terry get left in charge of three of Mr Big Nose's grandchildren, and that goes about as well as you'd expect.