The Great Treehouse War

The Great Treehouse War is a 2017 middle grade fiction novel by popular children’s author Lisa Graff. In this novel, Winnie Malladi-Maraj stages a stand-off against her recently divorced parents when their constant bickering threatens to prevent her from passing the fifth grade. Framed as a collective memoir combining the experiences of Winnie and her friends, the novel explores family dynamics and advocating for one’s needs. The text features illustrations and “sticky notes” from the characters that function as commentary from Winnie’s friends.

Winnie’s parents have never been what she’d call “normal.” Locked in constant competition with one another, they are more focused on their achievements than their relationship with her daughter; the one thing Winnie can count on from them is incessant conflict. Their competition carries over into their custody arrangement after they divorce: To ensure things remain exactly even between them, Winnie’s parents decide that she will spend three days a week with each of them—the seventh she will spend on her own in a treehouse situated exactly halfway between each of their properties. Winnie begins to value these days alone in her treehouse as her parents’ increasingly extreme behavior monopolizes the rest of her life.