The Grunts in Trouble

Story

Mr and Mrs Grunt live with their adopted - in fact, abducted - son, Sunny (an odd looking boy), in a donkey-drawn caravan. Together the unusual family find themselves in frankly unlikely but very funny adventures involving bendy railings, double-barrelled shotguns, full-fat yoghurt and, always, a beard of bees.

Why we chose it

A surreal and absurd story full of jokes and grotesque characters. Philip Ardagh, a former winner of the Roald Dahl Funny books prize, is known for his laugh out loud funny stories

Where it came from

English children's author, Philip Ardagh (born 1961), found inspiration for this book after Michael Rosen (English children's novelist and poet) pointed out that few eccentric characters seemed to come from ordinary backgrounds. So when one day the idea of two very grubby, shouty, messy characters trundling round in a shed-like caravan popped into his head, he thought this idea was worth exploring.

Where it went next

Philip Ardagh’s book was well received by critics and was nominated by several newspapers, including The Telegraph and The Guardian, as one of the Top Children’s Books of 2012. It was also voted Children’s Book of the Week by the Sunday Times in August 2012.

Associated stories

Grunts in Trouble was the first in a series of four stories about the adventures of Mr and Mrs Grunt and Sunny and was followed by the equally successful The Grunts all at Sea (2014), The Grunts in a Jam (2015) and The Grunts on the Run (2016).