Despite this early success, Griffiths was more interested in rock music and spent most of his creative talents in school writing rock songs. After high school, when several of the punk rock bands he had formed disbanded, he decided to return to school and earned a degree in education.
He then became an English high school teacher and has also worked as an editor and publisher of educational books focusing on English and writing. The urge to write stories never left Griffiths, and he returned to writing short stories when he became a stay-at-home dad in the early s.
When he tried to get a book of short stories published, eight publishers rejected it until one finally suggested turning it into a textbook with writing exercises.
Both collections feature stories and writing exercises focusing on different genres, styles, and subject matter, all designed to inspire and stimulate students to write. The books, which became widely used in schools throughout Australia, also incorporate large doses of humor, fun, and play, such as suggestions for annoying parents, instructions on riding spiders without getting bitten, and the real story behind the demise of dinosaurs. In these books Griffiths focuses on eliminating routine, which he sees as the "greatest enemy" in the classroom.
He writes in the introduction to Rubbish Bins in Space: "The teacher must be very vigilant for ways to shock that routine, to rediscover the freshness of the moment, to uncover the raw wonder lurking underneath the surface of the 'ordinary,' and to unleash the potential energy in the most predictable of response.
My aim was to update book humor and I didn't see why it had to be any less entertaining than a video game or a movie. Griffiths is also the author of the "Just! These books contain short stories about the young Andy, billed as the world's greatest, craziest, most annoying, and most stupid practical joker. In Just Tricking! In Just Annoying! Andy continues to annoy friends and family to the point that his parents dump him from their car and drive away. Writing in Magpie , Margaret Phillips noted: "I suspect Terry Denton and Andy Griffiths had a great time dreaming them [the stories] up and I suspect numerous readers are going to have a great time poring over them.
Andy does "just stupid" things, like cramming twenty marshmallows into his mouth. Commenting on Griffiths' "effective" use of the first person, present tense to tell the stories, Russ Merrin noted in Magpies that the style "lends immediacy to the author's conversational anecdotes.
As the reader, you rather get the feeling that Andy's prank has only just happened a few minutes ago, and you have just stumbled into its aftermath. It is the extravagant humour and imagery that Griffiths creates that ensnares the reader. Griffiths got the idea for the "Just! Eventually, a publisher discovered the book and published it, uniting Griffiths' text with Terry Denton's illustrations. View our privacy policy here. Our annual big day out for little readers is back!
Kids and their parents are invited to dive into the pleasures of books and reading in as many different ways as possible. Get in quick — these sessions are sure to book out. If you miss out, though, don't worry; you can still bring your book along to be signed by your favourite author. He and illustrator Terry Denton have collaborated on more than 33 bestselling books since their first title, Just Tricking , was published in I used to have a dog called Sooty and a cat called Silky.
What books did you like reading as a kid? I also loved sci-fi comics and MAD magazine. How many books have you written? What is your favourite book you have written? To me each new book in the Treehouse series is really just a chapter in a much longer story.
I love reading, listening to music, watching comedy, running, cycling, swimming, and staring out the window. Do you like writing? How did you become a writer? As an English teacher I wrote little stories to amuse my students.
I collected a few together and made photocopied books, which I shared with my students and friends. People liked them and I was encouraged to make more books and eventually I started doing it full time. What was the first book that you wrote? The first book I had published by a publisher—as opposed to little books I used to publish myself—was Just Tricking! Where do you get your ideas? The best story ideas come from a long slow process of thinking, reading, researching, experimenting, drafting, editing and lots and lots of re-working and re-writing.
How long does it take you to write a book? Each book takes around 12 months: 3 months of planning, 3 months of writing and then 6 months of re-writing, editing and polishing. What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?
And to read as much as you can! Can you give me some writing tips? Get an exercise book and write in it every day… 5 minutes a day to start with, and gradually increase to at least 30 minutes a day. You get better at writing like you get better at everything else, through constant practice. A good idea is to write the sort of stories that you love to read because, without realising it, you know a lot about this particular type of story and how it is supposed to work.
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