If there were an award for the biggest, oldest fifth-graders on the planet, Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton would win it, hands down. These two gentlemen from Australia are absolute experts at channeling the fantasies and daydreams of 10-year-old boys.
This is important, because reluctant readers are more often boys than girls, and they start losing interest in reading as they move through elementary school.
And this means the books, graphic novels and hybrids produced for this market are chock full of stuff that would make more civilized folk cringe, while third-, fourth- and fifth-grade boys cheer—and read.
Jokes and gags about bodily fluids, gases and solids; plots involving runaway body parts, authority figures wearing undergarments in public and zombies invading public schools are all part of the fun.
Writer Griffiths and illustrator Denton are the newest stars in the early reluctant-reader galaxy. Catch Griffiths in person when he visits Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on Thursday, May 5.
The “Treehouse” series
Their new series of book/graphic novel hybrids, beginning with “The 13-Story Treehouse,” stars themselves as a couple of young guys who just happen to be a writer-illustrator duo, who just happen to live in a ginormous treehouse brimming with items gleaned from preadolescent secret fantasy Christmas lists—a games room, see-through swimming pool, an underground laboratory, etc.—all purchased with the proceeds from their books.
In the first book, Andy and Terry realize they forgot a book deadline and don’t even have a topic. They employ the traditional writer’s dodge, writing about what they were doing while figuring out what to write, to great effect. The drawings are manic, and the story is zany and outrageous, involving a cat-canary combo, a giant banana, a sneaky-snaky mermaid, King Kong’s cousin, and unbelievably, much more.
Book 2, “The 26-Story Treehouse,” finds the guys admiring their latest additions—a bumper car rink, an anti-gravity chamber and a recording studio among them—and actually working on their next book before the deadline. The new book is supposed to be a tell-all about how they started working together and building the treehouse. But surprise, surprise! Things like sick sharks and a pirate invasion get in the way of art.
“The 39-Story Treehouse” is next. Some of the new treehouse add-ons are a baby dinosaur petting zoo and a chocolate waterfall. When Terry draws a machine that can write their books for them, things go very sideways.
The newest “Treehouse” book
Griffiths’ and Denton’s brand-new adventure is “The 52-Story Treehouse.” This one is my favorite, and it is totally nuts. The treehouse now has a do-it-yourself pizza parlor, a Disguise-o-matic 5000, a haunted house, a wave machine and much, much more.
Some of the new items come in handy when Andy and Terry try to find Mr. Big Nose, their publisher, who has been kidnapped by parties unknown. I can’t begin to describe the mayhem that ensues. I’m glad there are pictures!
The “Treehouse” books grow on you. The silliness is infectious—like a rash. They books are slightly crass and often gross, but the language isn’t snarky, like so many other titles in this genre (although “stupid” shows up occasionally). Written for third- to fifth-grade boys, they can easily stretch up or down a grade. They definitely hit the bullseye for their target audience, but some girls love them as well. The occasional female character, like the guys’ neighbor Jill, is smart and sympathetic.
It’s pretty obvious that this series will be around for a while. My only question is, how high can the treehouse get before its inhabitants need spacesuits?
If you go: 7 p.m. Thursday, May 5. Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 S. McClintock Dr., Tempe. 480-730-0205 or changinghands.com.
RELATED: Debra Citron’s April Fool’s Day post: “Terribly silly titles—ban these foolish books!”
