Just Tricking
| Author | Andy Griffiths |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Terry Denton |
| Cover artist | Terry Denton |
| Country |
 Australia
|
| Language | English |
| Series | Just! |
| Genre | Short story collection |
| Publisher | Pan Macmillan Australia |
|
Publication date
|
1997 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 137 |
| ISBN | |
| Followed by | Just Annoying! |
Just Tricking! is the first volume in the Just! series written by Andy Griffiths. Around the world, the book was released with different titles: Just Kidding! for the United Kingdom and Just Joking! for North America.
Andy tries to get out of school for the day by lying in bed all day with his eyes open, not intending to blink or breath when anyone is looking. Surprisingly, his parents do believe that he's dead, so Andy's father digs a grave near the family's lemon tree outside and pops Andy in, after which his father reads "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Soon after realizing this "burial" was to teach Andy a lesson all along, he decides to abort the joke, rising from his "grave" and scaring the living daylights out of his parents, who soon begin to burst into hysterics after they had finished "just tricking!" Afterwards, Andy finally gets what he wants: the day off school.
Andy and his parents head to the home of Andy's Dad's boss, Mr. Bainbridge, for a salad dinner, with Andy under strict orders not to play any jokes. When Andy discovers a cockroach in Bainbridge's salad bowl, he wants to tell the Bainbridges about it, but he fears it will look like a joke. Andy tries to get rid of the roach himself, but in a hilarious climax, Andy ends up naked, his head wet with toilet water and discovered stuck in the Bainbridge's bathroom window after numerous attempts to get rid of the roach, hoping that "he'll be able to interest anyone for media rights to story and whether the proceeds will make up for the pocket-money he's about to lose."
In this story, Andy gets a big gorilla suit and heads to the fictional La Trattoria for his sister's sixteenth birthday party, in which inside, he causes the most utter chaos he could cause. Soon afterwards, Andy trots over to a nearby seafood restaurant and has a go at mimicking as old couple eating with a knife and fork. Trouble arises later on in the story as a manager of another restaurant rings the police after being hassled by "Andy the gorilla" which prompts Andy to take the gorilla suit off to prove that he's a person and not a gorilla, but to no avail. When Jen arrives, Andy tries to bribe her into telling the authorities that he's just wearing a gorilla suit, but fails, with Jen ultimately betraying Andy to the police and the zoo.
Andy is left at home while his parents are at the Parent-Teacher Interviews at Andy's school. Instead of pulling pranks, he is cleaning up because he is sure his parents will be mad at his reports, so he is cleaning so they will forget about the bad reports. As he cleans a light bulb, he hears a knock on the door and opens it to sees no one there. As Andy keeps cleaning the house, he keeps hearing knocks on the door and keeps seeing nobody there which is starting to constantly annoy him. Andy soon accuses his best friend, Danny Pickett, for the tricks and fills a clean bucket with a disgusting mix composed of cornflakes, Vegemite, jam, vinegar, etc. and plans to throw it all over Danny as revenge. Soon, when "Danny" is about to knock on the door again, Andy flips open the front door and throws the mix on what he hopes to be Danny, but soon makes a shocking discovery: he had accidentally thrown it all over his Mum! As Andy's father prepares for "a little talk", Andy prays that they'll be "eating out of the palm of his hand" later in the night.
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