Readers who reveled in the lightheartedly ludicrous antics of the protagonists of Andy Griffiths’s 13-volume Treehouse series, illustrated by Terry Denton, can look forward to the author’s next madcap middle-grade series. Illustrated by fellow Australian Bill Hope, the Adventures Unlimited series kicks off on April 8, 2025, with The Land of Lost Things, due from Feiwel and Friends with an announced first printing of 150,000 copies. The cover is seen here for the first time.
The Treehouse series, which has sold more than 13 million copies in North America, the U.K., and Australia, got off the ground in 2013 with The 13-Story Treehouse, and continued to grow vertically until it maxed out in The 169-Story Treehouse this past April. The novels center on the not-coincidentally named young heroes Andy and Terry, whose attempts to write a book are routinely sidelined by their preoccupation with their ever-expanding treehouse residence. In the new series, Griffiths employs a different narrative conceit, again placing his alter-ego center-stage (in a persona called “me”) but catapulting the reader directly into the story as his sidekick (dubbed “you”).
Feedback from his young fans inspired the author to tweak his storytelling style for his new venture. “One of the most common requests from my readers over the years has been, ‘Can you please put me in your next book?,’ ” Griffiths told PW. “So I decided I would call one of the characters ‘you’ and the other character ‘me’ and we could go on wildly adventurous adventures together. We wear full-body adventure suits and cardboard box adventure helmets on our heads to protect ourselves and to protect our identities, so that it’s easier for readers to imagine themselves as the ‘you’ character.”
Griffiths relays the events in the books in flashback mode, asking the reader to “Remember when...” before launching into each (allegedly previously) shared exploit. This narrative technique, he explained, “assumes an instant familiarity with the reader as well as an intimate knowledge of our past together as great adventurers. I always loved it as a child when the narrator of a book would talk to me directly—perhaps to take me into their confidence or to pose a rhetorical question. It made me feel ‘seen’ by the narrator and increased my trust and confidence in them. I think one of the things that distinguishes books from other mediums is the highly personal nature of the narrative voice, and I’ve always loved playing with this.”
A Free-Wheeling Collaborative Spirit
Hope signed on to illustrate Adventures Unlimited after Liz Seymour, designer of Griffiths’s books at originating publisher Pan Macmillan Australia, saw a video of Hope drawing on YouTube and asked the illustrator to submit some sample artwork for the new series. “I was familiar with Andy’s work, so was already very excited at the chance to work with him,” Hope recalled. “But I was blown away by how well this new book was suited to my own artistic sensibilities and sense of humor. Andy and I have very similar fascinations with surreal and counter-cultural art, and we both deeply value all forms of nonsense and silliness.”
Viewing the sample illustrations, Griffiths immediately recognized Hope’s talent, a first impression that was confirmed when the artist submitted drawings for a rough draft of the first chapter of The Land of Lost Things. “Bill’s drawings were vivid, detailed, and very funny,” Griffiths said. “Most importantly, they immediately fired my imagination and suggested loads of possibilities and characters that I hadn’t even considered.”
The author explained that he and Hope worked in conjunction with Jill Griffiths, “my wife, editor and co-writer, building sequences and plot points from very simple ideas into complex ones. Our collaboration is very much based on improvisation. We pitch ideas, explore them in a playful way, and stay open at all times to everyone’s ideas of how to improve and extend the narrative. I feel enormously fortunate that Bill is able to intuit my words so quickly and in such a seemingly effortless fashion.”
Jean Feiwel, SVP and publisher of Feiwel and Friends, who with Emily Settle acquired and edited The Land of Lost Things (for the U.S. and Canada), similarly underscored Griffiths and Hope’s artistic compatibility. “As Andy and Terry Denton were with the Treehouse books [which Feiwel also acquired and edited], Andy and Bill seem of one mind,” she said. “Andy is a serious kid-pleaser—his humor is outrageously funny and a little subversive. And Bill’s comical illustrations are epic, with large pictures and infinite small details. They almost seem three-dimensional.”
Working out the cover treatment for The Land of Lost Things also involved a collective effort. “As with the rest of the book—which we spent the best part of 18 months working on—we all put an enormous amount of thought into the cover,” Griffiths explained. “We wanted it to convey the same energy and fun as the contents of the book. and it went through many, many drafts and iterations before we were satisfied.”
Hope added that the “long and fascinating process” of designing the cover was as rewarding as the other aspects of creating The Land of Lost Things. “Throughout the whole project, Andy and the Macmillan team have been amazing, giving me free rein to draw what I think is best, then adjusting those designs to best suit the book. Similarly with the cover, I came up with the illustrations independently then worked with our wonderful designer Liz to tweak and edit each bit till it looked as fabulous as it does now.”
Noting that Adventures Unlimited is an open-ended series, Griffiths disclosed that, “At this point I already know that there are at least two major adventures that ‘you’ and ‘me’ have been on, and after that we’ll just have to see. The experience of writing The Land of Lost Things was so organic and enjoyable that I suspect there will be many more adventures to come. It’s a process of constant discovery and delight—there’s nothing quite as exciting or as gratifying as finding out what happens next.”
Adventures Unlimited: The Land of Lost Things by Andy Griffiths, illus. by Bill Hope. Feiwel and Friends, $17.99 Apr. 8, 2025 ISBN 978-1-250-36735-8
