What Happens When Kids Stop Reading? Andy Griffiths Has the Answer

What makes a child want to read? And what happens when we stop trying to make childhood perfect?

In this episode, Osher Gunsberg looks back on his chat with one of Australia’s most successful children’s authors, Andy Griffiths, the award-winning creative force behind The Day My Bum Went Psycho and the much-loved Treehouse series.

Andy reflects on his early years as a high school English teacher and the lesson that shaped much of his work: children will engage with reading when we give them something they actually want to read. He explains why books offer children more than literacy — they can open up their imagination, expand their understanding of the world and provide a private escape from the rules and expectations of everyday life.

Andy also reveals how watching children choose books helped inspire the unconventional visual style of his Treehouse series of books, and how his creative partnership with illustrator Terry Denton grew from a willingness to embrace silliness, experimentation and ideas that might otherwise have been considered too strange.

The conversation also covers parenting, where Andy challenges the pressure to create the “perfect childhood”. Drawing on his own experience raising two daughters, he argues that allowing children to experience some adversity can help them develop resilience, and that 'good enough parenting' really can be good enough.

It's a funny, thoughtful and surprisingly profound conversation about books, childhood, imagination, parenting and the importance of giving kids permission to explore the world on their own terms.

LINKS

• Listen to the full episode with Andy here
• More about Andy and his work here
• Sign up to the Better Than Yesterday newsletter
• Watch episodes of Better Than Yesterday on YouTube
• Watch full stories recorded live at  Story Club on YouTube
• Get tickets for our next Story Club show
• Get Osher's latest book "So What? Now What?" here
• Send a pic of what you're looking at to sendosheremail@gmail.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.