The 26-Storey Treehouse

Andy Griffiths' The 26-Storey Treehouse is a daft, laugh-on-every-page adventure for 7 year olds in a treehouse that's just doubled in size.

What happens

Andy and Terry live in a treehouse and make books together (Andy writes, Terry draws). They've just added thirteen new storeys. There's a mechanical bull called Kevin, a pond with real ice-skating penguins and an Automatic Tattoo Machine. Yes, an ATM.

Their publisher, Mr Big Nose, wants a new book by next Friday. Andy knows exactly what it'll be about. The day he met Terry!

He doesn't get very far. Terry has tried washing his underpants in the shark tank, and the sharks have eaten them. Now the sharks are very poorly. So their neighbour Jill has to perform open-shark surgery (sharks have zips, apparently).

That's the joke of the whole book. Andy keeps trying to tell his story and something keeps getting in the way. When Terry does try to help, he "remembers" they met at a gingerbread house in the woods. Then at a ball, with a glass slipper. Who hasn't got a friend like Terry?

The real story involves a swan-shaped pedal boat, a kitten on an iceberg and a nasty pirate called Captain Woodenhead. Then a storm blows in and things get very silly indeed.

The pirates meet some very daft ends, one verse of a nursery rhyme at a time, and there's a skeleton in the Maze of Doom. It's all cartoon stuff and played for laughs. A very literal reader might still want a grown-up nearby for that bit.

It's brilliant for reading aloud. The sentences are short, the chapters fly by and Andy keeps talking straight to the reader, which makes it feel like being let in on the joke.

What to read next

This one follows on from the first treehouse book. If your reader hasn't met Andy and Terry yet, The 13-Storey Treehouse is where it all started, with a cat painted yellow and a book that's a whole year late.