Books Jack Reads

Australian author Andy Griffiths is well-known by young readers for his popular adventures featuring himself and Terry in their ever-expanding treehouse. But well before that series, Andy made a name for himself with his Just series of books, all featuring a collection of short stories about stuff Andy supposedly got up to when he was a kid.

​

In Just Annoying, Andy spends most of the nine stories (which sometimes involve his best friend Danny), annoying everyone around him with his crazy antics, including dressing up as a girl to annoy his older sister Jen at the school dance, annoying his parents during a long car journey while trying to get rid of a fly, and going on his own undercover mission during a James Bond movie when his last Jaffa goes missing.

​

If your kids are fans of Andy and his stories, then they'll enjoy this book. There are eight books in total in the Just series, and this one is the second.

​

Kids will enjoy reading about all the crazy situations Andy gets himself into, from almost drowning in the shower after using his dad's silicone gun to fill all the cracks, to trying to set a world speed record for swinging on the clothesline.

​

There are also lots of funny drawings done by Terry Denton in the margins that kids will enjoy looking at too, especially the funny adventures of Mr Scribble (who also features in most of the other books as well), and the funny speech bubbles featuring the page number fly.

​

Just a warning to parents though, your kids probably won't learn anything useful from this book. In fact, they might pick up a few tricks that you'd rather they didn't know.

​

Overall, this is a funny collection of short stories from a master author, and part of a hilarious series.