The 13-Storey Treehouse

The 13-Story Treehouse is a 2011 book[1] written by author Andy Griffiths and illustrated by Terry Denton,[2] and a stage play based on the book.[3] The story follows Andy and Terry, who are living in a 13-story treehouse, struggling to finish their book on time among many distractions and their friend Jill, who lives in a house full of animals and often visits them. According to the book, the 13-story treehouse has "a bowling alley, a see-through swimming pool, a tank full of man-eating sharks, a secret underground laboratory, a vegetable vaporizer and a marshmallow machine that shoots marshmallows into your mouths when it sees that you are hungry".

The 13-Storey Treehouse

First edition
Author	Andy Griffiths
Illustrator	Terry Denton
Country	Australia
Series	The Treehouse series
Genre	Juvenile fiction
Published	2011 (Pan Macmillan Australia)
Pages	239
ISBN	978-0-330-40436-5
LC Class	PZ7.G88366 Th 2011
Followed by	The 26-Story Treehouse
Website	http://www.andygriffiths.com.au/abook/?id=9780330404365

The 13-Story Treehouse won the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year for Older Children 2012.[4][5]

Plot

The book begins with the narrator and fictional depiction of the author, Andy Griffiths, giving an introduction to himself, his friend and illustrator Terry Denton, and their treehouse; the main story follows this.

Andy wakes up one morning, and on his way to getting breakfast, he meets Terry, painting a white cat yellow to turn it into a canary, or a "catnary". After being dropped from the treehouse, the cat grows wings and flies away. Andy and Terry are then greeted by their animal-loving friend Jill, who wants to find her pet cat, Silky. It turns out that the cat Terry painted was that exact cat. Andy and Terry try to remain innocent when Jill questions them. Right after Jill leaves, Andy and Terry receive a call via a 3D video phone by their publisher, Mr Big Nose, who is upset that the duo is behind schedule.

They soon try to come up with ideas for a book, so Terry gets a few self-portraits of his finger. Since they're Terry's only pictures in his folder, he and Andy end up in an argument which starts a drawing competition. Once they compete for the best banana drawing, Andy gets upset and gets in a fight with Terry, armed with the Giant Banana Terry grew in the intro. Terry ends up knocking Andy out and pours a bucket of water to save him. They come back to ideas for their book, and it turns out that Andy has four pages that read "Once upom a time". But before anyone can say more, Terry gets distracted by television as his favourite show, Barky the Barking Dog, is airing. Andy is not amused at all and throws the TV out.

Right afterwards, the duo are greeted by Bill the Postman, who is giving them sea-monkeys that Terry ordered. Andy is very unhappy with this. Terry goes down to the Secret Underground Laboratory to hatch the sea monkeys. After Andy waits for a long time for him to come back, he goes down to the Secret Laboratory. Andy gets even more bored and angry while Terry finishes hatching a sea-monkey. He then starts feeding it, but it grows into a mermaid named Mermaidia whom the duo put in a bathtub. She and Terry grow attached, leaving Andy alone. He overhears the love conversation from the bath door, which ends in Terry kissing Mermaidia. Once Terry runs off, Andy enters the bathroom and finds out that Mermaidia was a sea monster in disguise. Andy records her singing a song about how disgusting she is. He runs down the stairs to find Terry, who is eating marshmallows. After being shown the proof that Mermaidia is a monster, Terry sides with Andy, and questions on what to do. They end up going to the underground laboratory so they can shrink her down with the banana enlarger.

After shrinking the sea monster down, the duo gets back to their book once more. However, Terry still feels sad about how his sea-monkey turned out, so Andy tries to cheer him up with popcorn and lemonade. The lemonade makes Terry burp again and again, and when he chews bubble gum, he burps while chewing until he gets trapped in his burp bubble and flies up high. Andy tries to save him by using a swinging vine and golf. Andy succeeds to pop the burp bubble in the fourth golf shot, but Terry starts falling to the ground. The marshmallow machine saves him by shooting many marshmallows onto the ground beneath him.

When the two get back up to the treehouse, they come up with the idea of Superfinger, an anthropomorphic finger who solves finger-based puzzles. Once finished, the door rings. It turns out that Terry ordered another batch of sea-monkeys, much to Andy's dismay. However, instead of turning into sea monsters, the sea-monkeys turn into "monkey-monkeys". Andy and Terry get their giant banana and start whacking them with their giant banana. This, however, begins to hypnotize them, so the duo ends up throwing the monkeys and the giant banana to a far-off island.

They clean up, and things are soon back to normal. Andy and Terry get started on their next book (Which also begins with "Once upom a time") but are quickly disrupted by a giant gorilla shaking the treehouse to get bananas. This gorilla found the giant banana on his island and wants more like it. They also almost get greeted by the real Barky the Barking Dog actor because Terry won a Barky drawing contest. The meetup fails due to the gorilla. All is at stake, and the treehouse is nearly destroyed, but everything is saved when Silky and other "catnaries" save the day. They taunt the gorilla until he is unconscious, and then take him back to his island.

The duo is then greeted by Jill again, who asks about Silky flying. Andy tries to stay innocent again until he has to reveal the truth, but Jill is happy with Silky's new skill as she always wanted a canary but was worried that Silky would eat it up, so having a catnary "is like the best of both pets".

However, Andy is still upset with how he and Terry haven't got their book done, but Terry suggests that they write what happened that day. They write the events up and with the help of Jill in a Santa-like sleigh, get their book to Mr Big Nose for it to be published.

Sequels

The book has spawned a series of sequels:

• The 26-Storey Treehouse (released September 2012)
• The 39-Storey Treehouse (released September 2013)
• The 52-Storey Treehouse (released September 2014)
• The 65-Storey Treehouse (released August 2015)
• The 78-Storey Treehouse (released August 2016)
• The 91-Storey Treehouse (released August 2017)
• The 104-Storey Treehouse (released July 2018)
• The 117-Storey Treehouse (released July 2019)
• The 130-Storey Treehouse (released October 2020)

References

1. Griffiths, Andy; Denton, Terry (illustrator) (2013). The 13-story treehouse. Feiwel and Friends. ISBN 9781250026903. LCCN 2013404222.
2. "Review: The 13-Story Treehouse". Kids' Book Review. 24 July 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
3. Blake, Jason (September 23, 2013). "Andy Griffith's 13-Story Treehouse goes to the edge of the ridiculous". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
4. "Winners of the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) 2012 Announced". Readings. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
5. "History - Past ABIA Winners". Australian Book Industry Awards. Retrieved 12 July 2014.