Competition Winners
1st Place: Giant Zombie Rat by J O'Shea from QLD age 9
Andy Griffiths comments:
Love the speed with which Jackson sets this horror-farce up and moves it along. A light playful touch displaying a good sense of audience and I can't tell you how much I wish I'd written the line: "STOP in the name of good book writing!"
Giant Zombie Rat
One day Andy and Terry found an old tree house, inside they found stacks and stacks of paper. Terry looked as though he has just won gold lotto, "Andy, what do you think of a little book writing?" "It sounds marvellous" said Andy. So they sat down to write and draw.
One day they discovered that a character out of one of their books, a giant zombie rat was missing. "We're got to stop that rat from wrecking our town!" said Andy.
They found the rat in the city. Terry stepped forward and said "Stop! In the name of good book writing we will make you the star of our next book if you stop destroying the city." "I'm just here looking for soda" said the rat, looking kind of odd speaking English. "But why did you destroy the city?" asked Andy. "You try being an oversized rat trying to get soda!" said the rat.
They gave the rat a soda, asked him nicely to get back into their book and make him promise to stay there. Then they started writing their next book called "The Adventures of the Soda Drinking Giant Zombie Rat."
Second Place: The Magical Treehouse by E Masline from WA age 7
Andy Griffiths comments:
A charming story in a beautifully illustrated picture book format, Emily displays a great natural story-telling ability.
The Magical Tree-House
Dedicated to my little sisters Asha and Isabella.
One day three girls woke up to hear their Dad calling them.
They got dressed and went outside. Dad said "Close your eyes. I have a surprise for you."
Asha said, "Wow, Dad" and Isabella said "You made us a tree-house." Emily said "Can we paint it?" "Yes you can paint it," said dad.
"Let's have our favourite colours" said Emily, "Pink" said Asha, "Purple" said Isabella. "Let's get started", they said.
Dad said, "Here are the paints". Asha said, "oh no, there's only blue, red and white. Not fair, there's not pink or purple". Isabella started to cry. Emily gave her a cuddle.
"I've got an idea", said Emily, "We can mix the colours."
"Asha, you mix some red with some white and Isabella you mix some red with some blue", said Emily.
"Look I made pink" said Asha. "Look I made purple" said Isabella. "Let's Begin".
The girls worked very hard. Mum brought our lemonade and chips for them.
They finished at night time. "Come and see, mum and dad" said Asha.
Dad couldn't believe his eyes. "Hhhhhhhhow did you do that? I didn't know that I had pink and purple paint in my shed".
The girls giggled. "We were magical mixers" they said.
Third Place: The Tree and the Children by Z Clark from ACT age 12
Andy Griffiths comments:
An original and unusual story employing a timeline format tracing the history of a treehouse and its various occupants over a sixty year period.
The Tree and the Children
1953
Pablo and Espanola built a tree house. They made it out of spare bits of timber lying around in their Dad's shed, and were very proud when it was done. Pablo used a length of rope to pull up a cupboard, and they played for five years.
1969
Pablo grew up and had a child, Sarah. She and her friend Lucy fixed up the house, and ate little cakes and muffins. Sometimes, when Sarah was by herself, she read about ballet or played jack stones. She played for four years.
1985
For a long time, there were no children. Then a rich man had two boys. James and Henry rebuilt the tree house and added a lookout up the top. They played games about pirates, soldiers and space rangers. They played for six years.
2011
The tree sighed. It had not seen children for over ten years. The tree home lay in ruins and nobody lived at the house. The tree had given up hope. A car pulled into the driveway. A girl of about five or six hopped out.
The leaves rustled quietly.
The tree house was repaired.
The world was green again.
Special Mention: Giraffe Comes to Stay by C Sage from age 8
Andy Griffiths comments:
Great picture narrative featuring the well realised characters of Giraffe and Hippo.
Giraffe Comes to Stay
Once upon a time there was a big big hippo! And he had a friend but the only problem was that his friend was a Giraffe! Giraffe wasn't wide or big! Giraffe was so so tall! Hippo was excited because Giraffe was coming for tea. But hippo forgot that he was perfect fitting for his house but Giraffe wasn't!
When Giraffe arrived he said "hello" and tried to squeeze his tall neck through the front door. "Oh No! I forgot how tall you are!" "I've got an idea we can build a tree house!" "Great Idea" Shouted Giraffe! First they went to the lake there were still lots of wood left over from the beaver home! But there were still not enough wood.
So they went to the animal hardware shop and brought 100 strips of wood. And went back home to build the tree house. First they built the outside then they got all their belongings and put them inside.
At the end of the day Giraffe said Goodbye. And if he ever comes again he always has a place to stay.
Special Mention: The Treehouse by C Harbutt from QLD age 11
Andy Griffiths comments:
Really fast, really silly and quite possibly true account of the surprising origin of 'little brothers' ... urgh!
The Treehouse
Not very long ago, in a galaxy that was very, very close, there was a planet called 'A Ticking Timb Bomb'. One would assume that the aliens on that planet would know that with a name like that their planet was bound to explode sometime. But they didn't, until about five seconds before it went 'Kaboom'. They hurried to get their precious babies into the pods and off the planet. Then the planet exploded. Boom! The baby aliens in their space pods reached earth not long after and landed on the highest point your average backyard can offer: the treehouse! From there they slowly took over the world in the form that is known today as 'little brothers'. Pulling pranks and eating your dessert is only the beginning. Beware!
and then in no particular order
Treehouse by Z Mara from NSW age 11
Our Tree House Fortress by D Vonk from TAS age 10
The Adventures of Mark and Clark and the Rocket Tree House by E Hastie from QLD age 8
The Pea-bodies in the Tree House by B Dolfo from NSW age 12
The Tree House That Saved Us All by A Moss from QLD age 11
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