Series:

Grubtown Tales

7 total works

Cover of Grubtown Tales: Trick Eggs and Rubber Chickens
If Beardy Ardagh is to be believed, things all start going on the bonkers side of very wrong when Mayor Flabby Gomez finally finishes knitting his new home and declares a public holiday in Grubtown for its official opening. There will be free ice-cream and entertainment... only there's been a mix-up at the suppliers and the wrong costumes and props have arrived. And, if that weren't bad enough, there's the matter of a serious leak at Grubtown's new aquarium.

Cover of Grubtown Tales: The Wrong End of the Dog
Coming a month before the special World Book Day publication is the fourth instalment of the silliest series on record:

As eye-witness Beardy Ardagh reports, when famous film star Tawdry Hipbone visits Grubtown for the world premiere of her latest movie, For the Love of Ducks II, Mayor Flabby Gomez couldn't be more excited but, as usual, nothing goes to plan. Miss Hipbone's dog, Snooks, is snatched by a low-flying pelican, and it's a race against time to find him, in a rescue attempt involving Grubtown's usual ragbag of bungling buffoons.

Cover of Grubtown Tales: Stinking Rich and Just Plain Stinky

You won't find Grubtown on any maps. The last time any map-makers were sent anywhere near the place they were found a week later wearing nothing but pages from a telephone directory, and calling for their mothers. It's certainly a town and certainly grubby -- except for the squeaky clean parts -- but everything else we know about the place comes from Beardy Ardagh, town resident and author of these tales.

Grubtown is full of oddballs -- from the singing Grumbly girls to a family of duck-haters, and an out-sized mayor who's knitting a new house -- but Manual Org is too repulsive even for them. Getting him to leave town is top priority, until the discovery of a humongous diamond changes everything...

Cover of Grubtown Tales: When Bunnies Turn Bad
If Beardy Ardagh is to be believed, the trouble begins when a monkey escapes from the grubtown old folks home, or when the sun-ripe raisin man decides to give up shrivelled dried grapes and to grow vegetables instead. Whatever the beginning, it all ends up with far too many bunny rabbits and a serious problem with paper aeroplanes. Philip Ardagh shows just what it is that would make any sane-minded person avoid visiting Grubtown for business or pleasure at all costs, and excactly why fun-loving readers (of all ages) should head straight for a shelf of "Grubtown Tales."

Cover of Grubtown Tales: The Year that it Rained Cows
A startled cow falling out of nowhere onto Limbo Goulash while he's riding Marley Gripe's bicycle marks the start of a chain of events strange even by Grubtown's standards. Soon damaged property includes Purple Outing's Music Shack and Minty Glibb's attempt at the world's largest (strawberry) jelly-trifle. With Mayor Flabby Gomez throwing a wobbly, all chief of police, Grabby Hanson, can do is have the cow-fearing townsfolk watch the skies. Underground, meanwhile, there lies another big surprise...

Cover of Grubtown Tales: The Far From Great Escape
You won't find Grubtown on any maps. The last time any map-makers were sent anywhere near the place they were found a week later wearing nothing but pages from a telephone directory, and calling for their mothers. It's certainly a town and certainly grubby -- except for the squeaky clean parts -- but everything else we know about the place comes from Beardy Ardagh, town resident and author of these tales.

As Beardy Ardagh reports, when the local lighthouse is plunged into darkness and a ship runs aground -- flattening The Rusty Dolphin -- it's hard to imagine things can get much worse in Grubtown. But then there's a jail-break and the Police Department (all three of them) need all the help they can get from the (often bonkers) townsfolk. No wonder more trouble is waiting just around the corner.

Cover of Grubtown Tales: Splash, Crash and Loads of Cash
News just in from Beardy Ardagh: When a yachting trip turns to disaster and the shipwrecked crew, including Mango Claptrap, ends up using the impressively large Flabby Gomez as a man-made floating island, they need help. Who better to rescue them than the exceedingly useless lifeboat crew over at Limp, assisted by Grubtown's very own chief of police Grabby Hanson? But they have problems of their own. Can Jilly Cheeter save the day? And what about those hungry sharks . .?

Praise for Grubtown Tales:

'Philip Ardagh has invented his own style of storytelling.' Michael Rosen, Children's Laureate

'Frenetic, high energy humour and more fun than cleaning the underside of a garden snail with your tongue.' Daily Mail on Grubtown Tales: Stinking Rich and Just Plain Stinky

'Lovers of the absurd and disgusting will delight in Ardagh's new series.' The Guardian on Grubtown Tales: Stinking Rich and Just Plain Stinky

'Philip Ardagh writes funny like he can't help it . . . Silly, silly, silly. Young readers will love them.' Independent on Sunday

'This hilarious book will have you splitting your sides with laughter and wanting to read more, more more!' Blue Peter Book Club on The Year that it Rained Cows