Andy Griffiths is one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors. He and illustrator Terry Denton have collaborated on more than 33 bestselling books since their first title, Just Tricking, was published in 1997. In Australia, Andy and Terry’s books have sold over 10 million copies, won 80 children’s choice awards and 10 Australian Book Industry Awards—including Book of the Year for The 52-Storey Treehouse in 2015. Their much-loved Treehouse Series has been embraced by children around the world and is now published in more than 35 countries.
Today, Andy Griffiths is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about the latest Treehouse instalment – The 130-Storey Treehouse! Read on …
Andy Griffiths
Tell us about your book, The 130-Storey Treehouse!
AG: it’s an intergalactic adventure in which Terry, Jill, myself AND the treehouse are abducted by a giant flying eyeball and taken to its home planet of Eyeballia where we are forced to fight in an intergalactic death battle against 12 deadly aliens from all corners of the universe. Just another day in the treehouse, really …
This is the tenth book in the Treehouse series. How do you find the inspiration for each crazy new level?
AG: The UK publishers have come up with the phrase, ‘No rules, no adults and no limits!’ to describe the series and I think it captures the freewheeling fun of the books as well as the challenge. In a world where literally ANYTHING is possible, what’s the most ridiculously impossible thing we can think of? It’s a wonderful, endlessly involving challenge. And, of course, our readers are out there waiting for the next instalment—that’s a huge motivation right there!
Can you tell us a little bit about how you work with Terry Denton, who illustrates the books?
AG: It’s a messy back and forth process that takes place over a entire year with Jill as both editor and co-writer overseeing everything. It begins with me pitching a few broad ideas, Terry supplies some rough sketches which inspire new ideas which inspire new sketches. We go over and over and over the books blending the words and illustrations until they are as perfect as we can get them. The books continue developing right up to the point where we have to send them to the printer.
Did you ever imagine that the Treehouse books would become so popular?
AG: Yes and no. No because you can never plan for anything like this but yes because I knew what a genius Terry is and I always thought if I could harness his visual story-telling to work in tandem with my verbal story-telling that it would lead to something very special. This was not an easy process, however, and took many years and at least half a dozen experimental books to figure out how to do. The first book, The 13-Storey Treehouse, was experimental book #7 in what I expected might be a much longer line of experimental books! I knew it was an interesting and original book in many ways but it wasn’t until it was enthusiastically embraced that we knew for sure we’d found what we were looking for.
What’s the best or most memorable thing that a young Treehouse fan has ever said to you about the books?
AG: You’re not a kid—you’re an old man!
What do you love the most about writing for kids?
AG: Playing with words, playing with ideas and the licence to write the silliest funniest stories we can think of … what’s NOT to like with a brief like that?
What do you hope young readers discover in The 130-Storey Treehouse?
AG: That everything bad that happens is Terry’s fault and not mine. Oh, and I hope they discover that books provide a deep pleasure that no other medium can provide in quite the same way. I hope they fall in love with books and reading.
And finally, what’s up next for you?
AG: The 143-Storey Treehouse, of course! The fun—and work—never ends …
Thanks Andy!
—The 130-Storey Treehouse, written by Andy Griffiths and illustrated by Terry Denton (Pan Macmillan Australia) is out now.
This book is part of Booktoberfest, the festival of new books!
The 130-Storey Treehouse
The Treehouse Series: Book 10
Andy and Terry have added 13 new levels to their treehouse and now it's even more out of this world than before!
There's a soap bubble blaster, a GRABINATOR (it can grab anything from anywhere at any time), a time-wasting level, a toilet paper factory (because you can never have too much toilet paper), a room full of mechanical grandparents, a super long legs level, an extraterrestrial observation centre and the best bookshop-in-a-treehouse-in-a-tree-in-a-forest-in-a-book in the whole world!
Well, what are you waiting for? Come on up!
Bestsellers: RecipeTin Eats and The 156-Storey Treehouse score highly with readers! 
Best of 2019: Junior Fiction 
The 117-Storey Treehouse is coming soon (and we have SIGNED copies)!
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