Andy Griffiths

And it, it's, it's seeing someone else's, um, day-to-day experience.

A- and like Andy Griffiths tells this story beautifully that one of the first times he went out to a community, um, with the ILF, he was working with the kids, and they were telling him about this crocodile down the river.

And he was asking the story, and they're like, "Oh no, we swing out." And I, and I forget the crocodile's name.

It was, like, Barry or something the kids called him.

[laughs]

...

this, this, this whole conversation that you're sort of sitting there going, Andy Griffiths, who's known for his sense of humor, for his naughty stories and all this sort of stuff, was sitting there walking away from this community afterwards going, "I've got nothing on the storytelling these kids have got." And he-

Mm

And wonderful.

The current Australian Children's Laureate, Andy Griffiths, is currently inspiring kids everywhere with weird and wonderful stories, including his own blockbusters like The Treehouse Series with illustrator Terry Denton, The Bum Trilogy, and his latest with illustrator Bill Hope is You and Me and the Giant Knucklehead.

Hey, ABC Radio National's Top 100 Books, it's on right now and this year we are asking you to nominate and vote for your favourite Australian books of all time, including I hope what will be a stack of brilliant kids books.

One happens to be right at the top of my voting card and it's into some of your favourites that we dive today and into a few of the controversies.

She was on a losing streak, wasn't she? She didn't have much chance.

Thank you, Hilary.

Andy Griffiths, can you do the honours? Yes.

I can, from my mystery book.

Okay, Mark,

what was your answer? I wrote, who is Andy Griffiths? And I wagered $0.

Okay, Andy Griffiths is correct.

Great.

And well, let's see.

Let's see.

What did you say, Zach? I mean, Crazy Pete?

I wrote Andy Griffiths as well.

Tell me your favourite kids book and why.

And joining me to share some light on the author-illustrator relationship are Andy Griffiths and Bill Hope.

Andy is the 2026-27 Children's Laureate, best-selling children's author.

Bill is an award-winning artist and illustrator.

It's Life Matters on ABC Radio National.

I'm Tegan Taylor.

I'm talking to Bill Hope, the illustrator, and Andy Griffiths, the author, about their collaboration.

ABC Radio National has launched its Top 100 Australian Books vote.

It's terrible.

It's funny that, you know, just on that note, I do remember sitting next to the lovely man who wrote the Treehouse series, Andy Griffiths, and his line, his hand was...

His line was so long.

My line, nobody.

So hopefully that will be a huge success, which is happening in the start of October.

with a bunch of different authors that are involved in that, including Andy Griffiths.

That's not the traditional sort of festival vibe.

It's more like a couple of days at a certain location.