Just Annoying!

Andy Griffiths' Just Annoying is a book of daft short stories for 10 year olds about a boy who treats winding up his family as a full-time job.

What happens

Andy has been in the car for two days. He keeps asking "Are we there yet?" and his dad's knuckles have gone white on the steering wheel.

Then there's the fly. Andy tries buzzing at it, then opening and shutting the car door to suck it out. When he dives into the front seat after it, Dad stops the car and tells him to walk.

What happens next involves a bikie called Max with insects in his beard and a stunt nobody should EVER copy. (It's completely ridiculous, which is the point.)

That's the first story and it sets the pattern. Andy has an idea he thinks is brilliant and keeps going long after anyone sensible would have stopped.

In one he's spent two days copying his sister Jen, so he follows her to the school social in a dress, a wig and her bra. In another he takes a garden gnome on holiday and becomes convinced it's trying to kill him.

Then there's Fred, the imaginary friend he invents to get out of the school sports carnival. Mum plays along a bit too well.

Andy tells you everything as it happens and he's certain none of it is his fault. How could it be? He was only trying to get rid of a fly.

It's the second book in the series, but the stories stand alone, so your reader can start here. It's Australian too, so expect bikies and fairy floss (that's candyfloss).

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The humour is cheeky and a bit rude, with bras, bums and underpants and some mild swearing.

Plenty of what Andy does would be dangerous in real life, like opening the car door on the highway and taking a lift from a stranger on a motorbike. And at the social, a boy who thinks Andy is a girl won't let go of him when he tries to leave.

It's all played for laughs. Still, if your reader likes to try things out for themselves, it's worth a quick chat first. For a child who loves a narrator who never learns, it's perfect.

What to read next

When they've finished, the series carries on with Just Stupid! His mate Danny (he's at the social in this one) joins in, and the pair of them spend the first day back at school trying to get expelled.