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Cover of The 65-Storey Treehouse
Illustrated · ages 7–10

The 65-Storey Treehouse

Written by Andy Griffiths · Illustrated by Terry Denton

Book 5 of 13 in The Treehouse SeriesView the full series

Bestseller listStage adaptation

A time-travel-heavy fifth Treehouse adventure that sends Andy and Terry racing through history to save their home. It keeps the ridiculous room-list appeal while adding a strong rescue-the-treehouse engine.

  • Best for7–10
  • FormatIllustrated
  • Length384 pp
  • Read aloud~5 hr25 min
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The vibe

What it’s like.

Style

  • Conversational
  • Comedic
  • Onomatopoeic

Tone

  • Funny
  • Silly
  • Absurdist
  • Irreverent
  • Exciting

Themes

On the pagetreehouse, time travel, demolition threat, silly rooms, comic illustrations, inventions, quicksand pit, exploding eyeballs

Experience meters

Energy5/ 5
Humour5/ 5
Scariness1/ 5
Peril2/ 5
Wonder4/ 5
Cosiness2/ 5
Emotional intensity1/ 5
Conceptual intensity2/ 5

What’s it about?

The story.

Andy and Terry's treehouse has reached sixty-five storeys, with a pet-grooming salon, a birthday room where it is always your birthday, exploding eyeballs, a lollipop shop, a quicksand pit, an ant farm and, most importantly, a time machine. That last addition becomes vital when the treehouse fails its safety inspection and faces demolition. The boys are forced into a whirlwind trip through time, trying to fix the problem before their impossible home is destroyed. The fifth Treehouse book keeps the series' high-energy blend of words and cartoons, but the time-travel premise gives the chaos a particularly clear adventure shape. Terry Denton's illustrations make the historical jumps, silly rooms and disasters feel instantly readable, while Andy Griffiths' narrator voice keeps everything casual, loud and joke-driven. It is a strong pick for readers who like inventions, time machines and absurd problem-solving.

Fit check

Right for your child?

Where it lands by age

  • 1
  • 3
  • 5
  • 7
  • 9
  • 11
  • 13
  • Best fit · 7–10
  • Read aloud · 6–10
  • Independent · 7–11

Prose load

Moderate

Visual support

Very high

Reluctant-reader friendly

Very

Read-aloud quality

Strong

Works well for

  • Reading aloud
  • Reading together
  • Reluctant readers
Low sensitivityNo content warnings

Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.

Bedtime suitability

2 / 5 · Better outside bedtime

Sensitive-child

4 / 5 · Good fit

Graphic intensity

1 / 5 · None

Best for

  • Diary of a wimpy kid fans
  • Captain underpants fans
  • Silly humour
  • Visual readers
  • Time travel fans

Avoid if

  • Prefers realistic stories
  • Prefers calm books
  • Needs tight plot
  • Dislikes shouting

Particularly good for children who are…

  • Reluctant reader
  • Struggling with reading
  • Neurodiversity or learning differences
  • Interested in science

In the classroom

How it works in school.

The anarchic, hugely funny Treehouse series — a legendary reluctant-reader hook and classroom-library staple.

Classroom role

  • Classroom library

A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.

Why it lands

Why they love it.

Why kids love it

The specific kick is the time machine — the treehouse fails its safety inspection, faces demolition, and the boys race through history trying to fix the problem before their home gets knocked down. The Treehouse with the strongest save-the-treehouse engine.

  • Adventure and freedom
  • Having a secret base
  • Secret world
  • Trickery and cleverness

Why parents love it

The fifth Treehouse — time-travel hook gives this one a clearer adventure shape than most. Demolition-threat-to-the-treehouse plot is the kind of thing a series-deep reader feels in their stomach. Strong mid-series volume.

  • Shared humour
  • Quick to read
  • Conversation starter

In the series

The Treehouse Series.

13 books · open the series →

About the creators

About the creators.

AG

Andy Griffiths

Writer · Australia · b. 1961

Andy Griffiths is an Australian author born in 1961, best known as the writer of the Treehouse series, beginning with The 13-Storey Treehouse (2011) and continuing in 13-storey increments, illustrated throughout by Terry Denton. The series is an exuberant, gag-saturated, illustration-heavy chapter-book franchise that has become one of the dominant reluctant-reader properties in UK and Australian publishing for ages 6–10. Griffiths' earlier Just Annoying!, Just Tricking! and Just Stupid! short-story collections established his voice: anarchic, gross-out, gleefully silly. The Treehouse books interleave prose with comic panels, single-page gags and absurd inventions on every spread. A reliable read-aloud engine.

More from Andy Griffiths
TD

Terry Denton

Writer & illustrator · Australia · b. 1950

Terry Denton is an Australian illustrator born in 1950, best known as the long-time visual collaborator of Andy Griffiths on the Just! short-story collections and the Treehouse series. Denton's style, loose, energetic, marker-and-line cartooning packed with running gags, side characters and visual asides, is the visual engine of those franchises, which would not be the same in any other illustrator's hands. He also writes and illustrates his own picture books (Wombat and Fox, Felix and Alexander) and the Gasp! series. A defining illustrator in contemporary Australian children's publishing, and one of the most heavily-illustrated chapter-book voices in print.

More from Terry Denton

If you liked this

Three ways out of this book.

If you liked this, try…

Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.

Come into this from…

Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.

Where to go next…

Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.

Buy or borrow

Pick up a copy.

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Last reviewed · April 2026Suggest a correctionHow we recommend

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