Killer Koalas from Outer Space and Lots of Other Very Bad Stuff that Will Make Your Brain Explode!

by Andy Griffiths, Terry Denton (Illustrator)

Surprise, absurdity, and laugh-out-loud humor are the hallmarks of this New York Times- bestselling author, and in Killer Koalas from Outer Space, Griffiths offers up a collection of ridiculous stories featuring zombie kittens, rocket stealing ants, and of course, killer koalas from outer space.

Genres: Humor, Graphic Novels, Short Stories, Childrens, Middle Grade, Comics, Fiction

176 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 2011

About the author

Andy Griffiths is Australia’s most popular children’s writer. He is the author of over 20 books, including nonsense verse, short stories, comic novels and plays. Over the past 15 years Andy’s books have been New York Times bestsellers, won over 50 children’s choice awards, been adapted as a television cartoon series and sold over 5 million copies worldwide.

Andy is best known as the author of the much-loved Just! series and The Day My Bum Went Psycho. In 2008 Andy became the first Australian author to win six children’s choice awards in one year for Just Shocking!, smashing his previous record of 4 awards for The Bad Book in 2005.

In 2008 Andy and his wife Jill collaborated with The Bell Shakespeare Company on the popular and critically acclaimed theatrical production Just Macbeth! which was nominated for two Helpmann Awards. In July 2010 Just Macbeth!completed a return sold-out season at the Sydney Opera House before heading to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it received rave reviews. The book of the play was shortlisted in the children’s section of the 2010 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

Andy has had a long-standing collaboration with the multi-talented illustrator Terry Denton. Together they have produced theJust! series, the wildly popular The Bad Book and The Very Bad Book, the ridiculous illustrated guide What Bumosaur is That?, and the Seussian-inspired early readers The Cat on the Mat is Flat and The Big Fat Cow that Goes Kapow! Their latest book is The 13-Storey Treehouse (September 2011).

http://us.macmillan.com/author/andygr...

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not for the littlest kids, more like maybe 10 year olds will like this. It's the kind of thing parents will think is just gross. Funny in some parts, though.

[The Library Lady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stupid beyond stupid with no moral center, no important life lessons and zero literary value.
I hated it. Parents will hate it. Teachers will hate it. Well meaning librarians will hate it.
Kids (boys especially) will love it and READ IT!

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stupidest thing I've ever read. Obviously an attempt at pre-teen boy humor, but farce isn't humor. And this isn't even good farce. Andy griffiths should know better.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Regardless of how you personally feel about this book, you must admit it knows its audience--upper elementary-aged children with a propensity towards potty humor (which typically describes boys, but some girls, too) well. I'm honestly amazed it got published; it's a bit subversive in its nonconformity to the "rules" of children's lit, that there should be some kind of underlying/guiding principle, subtle though it may be. this book is pointless and a waste of time and is wonderful because of it.

[Alicia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very excited when I saw this cover--but I shouldn't have been. The humor was super-lame and rarely stretched into true imagination and creativity. It was nothing but snippet stories of kids dying because of how stupid they were, repeated poop drawings, or an emphasis again and again about how naughty the book was. The koalas were hardly even featured! I can enjoy scatological humor, but this particular book left me annoyed, bored and I did not laugh once. And that is its greatest sin.

[Kerrikoala · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book caught my attention because of the title. I thought I'd get a laugh out if it because the killer koalas sound a lot like dropbears. I know I'm much older than the intended audience, but I can still appreciate a good children's book. (I can also appreciate a good poop joke.) However, this book was AWFUL. Of course, it doesn't pretend to be a work of greatness. It even says on the cover that it contains very bad things. I just couldn't believe how bad it was.

[Kate Hastings · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grades 3-6. RL 780. For fans of Super Diaper Baby-- this is an over-the top silly and crude book that boys will love. The favorite at our house was a short story about the Dog Poo Family. Which was actually really funny, if not sort of wrong. Did I mention boys will love this?

[Jerry Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, easy and stupid read. By the way, I say "stupid" with nothing but affection.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for an 8 year old boy. Has lots of jokes, comic strips, and very short adaptations of fairy tales/nursery rhymes. Potty humor.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quasi-graphic novel. There are more pictures than works. These two writers are definitely hooked into a kid's mindset. This is series of shorts with the continuing thread of killer koalas running around. Lots of insane, nonsensical stuff that will have your third grader laughing his head off and the authors would make that literal.

[Marieke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg, I remember stumbling across this book in my elementary schools library and I loved it! Such dark humor and an 8 year old like me was obvious to and I loved all the crazy jokes. I introduced it to all my little friends and we all loved it and it brings back so many fun memories from 3rd grade. Gosh what a book!

[Hishi Mochi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, at first, I was interested on the cover of the book...and I wish I didn't though. Because after reading this book, I found out how pointless this book was. No hate to it, but it had a ton of things that were foolish and the humor was lame and dull.
So yeah, I didn't really enjoy it...
Anyway, it wasted half of my time reading this book...

[Doris Siu · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I saw this book I thought that it’ll be a silly read like the Captain Underpants series. But then, when I actually read it, I realized it’s actually sillier with no real plot. Though, there were some pages that gave me a good chuckle. Definitely for a younger audience who has a childish humour.

[Rebecca Doe Kudelka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utter silly nonsense... however. My 7 year old decided he wanted to read it cover to cover. 174 pages willfully. That is a feat in itself... Young boys like crazy silly stories, potty talk and crazed animals... this is fact. Is this a bad book? Not if the object of the book is to get kids to read.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

My kids loved this book. I, on the other hand, rolled my eyes and shook my head through most of it. Adults won't like it, but kids will love it! It even got my rebellious child that absolutely refuses to read anything reading!! Amazing!!

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible book. As bad as A Cat Sat on a Mat is awesome. So disappointed in the lack of effort. Griffiths settled for pure stupidity and no wit. A dog who’s body falls apart one piece at a time? Like the other stories, it’s dumb, simple, and has no point, and no punchline.

[Kira McGann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disturbing.

[Indy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't actually finish the whole book, as its content appeared to be the same as another book...

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really my cup of tea, but my seven year old daughter loved it, so that’s good enough for me!

[El]

+

[Katrina Bleyl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dumbest book I have ever read. Do not waste your time reading this.

[Ro · Rating 5 out of 5]

🐨🐨🐨🐨🐨🐨🐨🐨🐨

[Callum · Rating 5 out of 5]

FUNNY!

[Heather Cumbo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's creepy and weird at the same time.

[Anthony Morello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Killer Koalas from Outer Space is a collection of humorous short stories in graphic novel format, in which the characters are as the author puts it "very bad". There is little that connects each story other then the characters being "very bad", although many incorporate animals and some parody classical tales like "The Lady that Lived in a Shoe".

I picked this book up because the title and the evil koala on the front caught my eye. This book is very humorous and is targeted towards a specific demographic of preadolescent boys. The illustrations appear in different layouts of simple cartoon drawings. This choice of illustration allowed for a strong use of lines and shading, as well as many of the illustrations being framed like a comic book. The author uses the same text fonts throughout but in the word bubbles of the illustrations the font vary. The cohesion of this graphic novel comes from the illustrations, and there is a good use of text and illustration interplay because of the format. I didn't really like this graphic novel because of the style and lack of cohesion the author used. I think it targeted for a very specific audience and most outside of that audience won't appeal to this book.

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ridiculous, goofy, very bad fun from the author of The Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow.

One thing should be clear. This is not a novel about Killer Koalas from Outer Space. Instead, it's a grab-bag of short silly fun. There is a series of seriously fractured nursery rhymes, there are several stories about the Dog Poo Family (yes, you read that right), there's a bunch of stories about Bad Mommy and Daddy (Kid: "Can I jump into that volcano?"...Dad: "I suppose so."), there's even a crossword where every single answer is the word Bad. Everything is illustrated, at least a bit by scribbly, black and white, kid-style art. It's in poor taste, and that's all the fun.

Reluctant readers, much?

FYI: The physical cover I have is sparkly (like diamonds) where the blue is on the cover pictured.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love it or hate it, this is a quick read. I enjoyed it even though it has no redeeming value. It seems like there's a school of thought that believes all children's books must have a lesson or moral to impart. I like this because it doesn't. When I was a kid a long, long time ago, we had such nasty little ditties and enjoyed them thoroughly. Because no one (at least that I know of) catered to young demented tastes, our twisted songs and poems were passed along orally and certainly not as witty as this.

[BunnyDumpling · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disjointed and aimless collection of twisted nursery rhymes, goofy jokes, and grim comic strips, heavy on the potty humor. Not to say that the entire lot stinks: "The Very Bad Road" and "The Very Bad Holiday" are grimly amusing, and I enjoyed the poo on stilts joke. Mostly, however, the book lacks the sly ingenuity of Shel Silverstein and the humorous realism of Jeff Kinney's "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series. Its many varieties of gory injuries--leading to the inevitable "x's for eyes" phenomenon--will likely make this a favorite amongst boys in grades 3-5.

[Alex Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the book there was a story about a boy who ate flies and he turned into a fly and another one was about blood sucking grannies from the grave and they had gravy. Also, in the last story it was the full killer koalas story and in it one guy in a crowd asked is the world done and then the manager said we're doomed. And the manager kept on saying we're doomed and the guy in the crowd kept on say is the world done?

[Kascia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book. I'm giving it 2 stars only because it didn't meet my criteria of a good book but that doesn't mean it's not a good book to little boys or to anyone else. My 7 year old nephew read it before I did and couldn't stop giggling. He even read it in the car, he just couldn't put it down. When I asked him how many stars he would give the book out of 5, he responded 41. Not so great for adults, but awesome for boys.