Amusing Andy

Tonight I took Jay and Harri to an in-store book signing by Andy Griffiths. He is the number 1 selling kids author in Australia and Jay absolutely loves his books. He writes hilarious stories that kids just seem to love - all about bums, and crazy things that are very far fetched, but very funny.

Andy went to Summerdale Primary School today and one class from Punchbowl went up to listen to him, and Jay was very disappointed that his class didn't get to go - especially as they have been reading his short stories together as a class all year. When I told him that he was going to be a Stories Bookshop he was so excited to go and meet him.

We were pleasantly surprised to see Kylie, Patrick and Lauren there as well.

Jay was one of the first kids to get him to sign his books, and Harri really didn't care as he had no clue who he was! :)

After school Jay had a brainwave for an idea for a book for his 'JUST! series', and wrote down a little blurb for the back and designed a cover. He called it 'JUST Mahem'.

After Andy signed his books Jay said to him 'I have an idea for you for a book' and gave him his piece of paper. Andy looked at it and said it looked great and loved the cover design and asked him for his address and wrote it down on the piece of paper and asked if he could keep it. He said he wanted it so he could write back to him. Jay was very excited!

He spoke for about 40 mins or so and interacted a lot with the kids. He was very amusing and told them how he came up with stories and got them to help work out story lines as he went along. He also showed them how he just writes his thoughts down in a cheap note book and also used a couple of props to make up a very funny story about a baby and Godzilla.

He was telling them lots of funny things - like how to annoy your teacher by putting up your hand and saying silly stuff. That of course set the kids off and they would put up their hand and he would point to them and they would say something silly to him! I think he may have been regretting what he taught them! He then kept cracking jokes about Launceston being a 'town full of idiots!'. Jalen was asked about a time he told his little brother or sister a lie to trick them and he told him about how he saw a daddy long legs spider in the bedroom and told Harri it was a redback.

It was lots of fun and nice to see how excited the kids were to meet an author. There were so many boys there - lots around Jalen's age. It was great seeing them all come in with their books (must be the teacher coming out in me!). On the way out Jalen, Lauren and Patrick were lucky to be handed a free book of three of his short stories. Only a few kids got them so they scored well! The boys had a little look around the shop before we left. It is a great little bookshop for kids with lots of little areas for them to sit in and play in. It also has a coffee shop which is a bonus for the parents.




On the way home we called into Maccas for a treat on the way home. It was a nice night and nice to spend some time with just two of my boys after being stuck at home for days with Noah and Kobe :)

Speaking of Kobe - he had a much happier day today. The poor boy is really getting sick of being inside. I had to take Noah and Kobe out today to get Noah a different antibiotic, and when I asked Kobe if he wanted to go in the car he ran to the door and started banging on it and cried because we weren't leaving right then! He was so happy to be out - even if it was just at the hospital!