Daisy and Bug: Treehouse Troubles

Daisy and Bug: Treehouse Troubles

Kim De Haan

Perentie Press, 2026

64pp., graphic novel, RRP $A15.99

9781923543072

It’s a common theme in literature and life – two completely different people/animals/creatures becoming best friends despite everything, and so it is with Daisy and Bug.  Daisy has a remarkable imagination and is full of new ideas to explore and build (like the pizza hat that created more chaos than calm) whereas Bug is more practical and pragmatic, able to see the flaws in Daisy somewhat hare-brained schemes.

And so it is this time when Daisy accidentally-on-purpose wakes Bug to share the dream of building the world’s biggest treehouse, and even though Bug points out that they don’t have a tree, Daisy is not deterred.  What follows next is a series of LOL events as solutions lead to problems which lead to solutions which lead to… and which will engage young, independent readers who are able to manage the graphic novel format in its simplest form, while, at the same time, engaging with both books and reading just like their older siblings and peers.

The graphic novel format is ideal for portraying this hilarious story because the text itself is quite sparse, and so young readers have to actively engage with the illustrations to carry the story forward, making use of their predictive and interpretative skills that are essential to being an independent reader capable of managing more complex plots.  For example, when Daisy’s “tree” ruins Bug’s napping spot, they need to follow the pictorial sequence to find out what Bug does and what that then leads to. 

A peek inside…

Perentie Press is a recent arrival to the Australian publishing scene, drawing its name from Australia’s largest lizard, and specialising in offering young readers graphic novels as they build on the mounting research about the benefits of this format in the development of language and literacy skills, not the least of which is their popularity with those who might otherwise disengage with reading altogether.  

With a quick quiz to determine whether the reader is more like Daisy or Bug, and a step-by-step drawing activity to recreate the characters and perhaps their own adventures, perhaps the best part of the back matter is the promise of more adventures in Cake-tastrophe although no release date is indicated yet. In the meantime, readers might like to stretch their own imaginations and design their ideal treehouse regardless of whether they have a tree or not. After all, we all need somewhere to dream up our next big idea! 

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