13-Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Terry Denton

[Originally published in 2013]

This book is strongly in the "and THEN" genre of child-like storytelling. It's weird, hilarious, and pointless. A certain subsection of elementary school readers will love it.

So, Andy and his friend Terry live in a 13-story treehouse. A glorious diagram of said treehouse fills the end pages, showing exactly where the unique features of the room from giant catapult to secret underground laboratory. Besides being their home, the treehouse is also where they write books. They've written a whole stack of them (a close observer may see some familiar titles).

Sometimes they make up their books, but sometimes they just write down what happened and that's where this book comes from. It all starts with the canary-cat, or catnary. Then their publisher, Mr. Big Nose, calls. He is a little upset that their current book is a tad late and they set out to write it immediately...as soon as they deal with the sea monkeys. But then they find themselves facing down a sea monster, attacked by a giant gorilla, blowing burp-filled bubblegum bubbles and...will they ever get the book written?

The illustrations are pen and ink scribbles, just the kind of thing a kid would doodle all over a book as they write crazy adventures with a friend. The pictures - and the stories - are cheerfully inappropriate, ranging from the main characters kissing a mermaid (and the resulting grossness) to the drawing of super finger, complete with bare bone sticking out the end.

Verdict: Fans of Griffiths' easy readers (The Big Fat Cow that went Kapow is a favorite at our library), Captain Underpants, or Zombiekins will be delighted by the mixture of gross, nonsense, and total randomness dumped into this book. The reading level varies throughout the book, but a good 2nd or 3rd grade reader should be able to handle it. Do not hand to stuffy people, those without a sense of humor, or anyone who hasn't recently had an uncensored talk with a 3rd grader.

Revisited: This is a staple series now and they are up into the 100s of stories of the treehouse. Bearing in mind that Griffiths' original hit book was "The day my butt went psycho" any kids who love Pilkey, gross humor, and lots of cartoons, continue to devour these and I consistently purchase multiple copies.

ISBN: 9781250026903; Published 2013 by Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan; Borrowed from another library in my consortium; Added to the library's order list; Purchased multiple copies for the library