Killer Koalas from Outer Space

Andy Griffiths' Killer Koalas from Outer Space is a gloriously silly collection for 8 year olds packed with very bad jokes, very bad ideas and very bad endings.

What happens

There's no one story here. It's a jumble of rhymes, riddles, knock-knock jokes, twisted fairy tales and tiny stories, most of them very short.

The title poem sets the tone. The koalas look cute and cuddly, but they're really aliens in disguise, and they'll rip your face off!

The very bad ant is a highlight. It walks up a stick. It walks over the stick. It walks down the stick. Then it finds a big red shiny space rocket, presses START and flies it straight into the sun (without its seatbelt on). Which wasn't very nice, but not very surprising, because it was a very bad ant.

Then there's the boy whose head really does screw off. He forgets to screw it back on, and it ends up rolling down a pipe, getting swallowed by a fish and sold on eBay to a little old lady who uses it as a bowling ball.

Fairy tales get the same treatment. Little Bad Riding Hood is asked to take her poorly grandmother some vital medicine, and simply says "No." Mud Brown lives in a bog with seven slobs and marries Prince Poopy-pants. Their first kiss doesn't go well.

It's the kind of book that gets read aloud to anyone who'll listen, usually with a lot of giggling.

Should you know what's coming? Almost everybody in these stories comes to a sticky end, and that's the joke. There are poo jokes, a farm song about guts and a story where the word "badder" just goes on and on and on. If your child is the anxious sort, a few endings might land oddly. But the silliness is so over the top that most readers will be howling.

It's perfect for a reluctant bedtime, a car journey or a child who likes to dip in and out rather than follow a long story.

What to read next

If they want a longer dose of the same silliness, try The 13-Storey Treehouse. Andy and his friend Terry live in a treehouse with a tank of man-eating sharks, and it all starts when Terry paints a cat yellow to turn it into a canary.