Kids' ideas spark inspiration for bestselling author

Beloved children's author Andy Griffiths never has to look far for a new idea.

Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, the music of Nick Cave and Stanley Kubrik's 2001: A Space Odyssey are just some sources he has drawn inspiration from.

But it's his readers, the millions of kids who have devoured his books, that have provided some of his best ideas.

"In every book, there's a contribution from a reader drawn from something they've said to me or drawn a picture of," he told AAP.

A few years ago, the Melbourne-based author was presenting to a group of schoolkids when they began shouting ideas.

"We need a ninja snail training academy," one of them said.

"I forgot all the other ideas from that session, but I just thought, 'ninja snail training academy', what would that involve?" Griffiths said.

It was a question he would answer in the writing of his bestselling Treehouse series, which went on to feature the academy in back-to-back instalments.

That reading, like writing, is an adventure is the lesson he hopes to spread as Australia's ninth Children's Laureate.

Griffiths' appointment to the role was announced on Tuesday, with his two-year term set to begin later in February.

The laureate's role is to promote reading to young people and champion issues affecting the entire children's literature industry.

He follows writers and illustrators Gabrielle Wang, Morris Gleitzman, Leigh Hobbs, Jackie French and, most recently, Sally Rippin.

"I'm absolutely thrilled to pass the laureate baton to Andy Griffiths," Rippin told AAP.

"Andy brings joy, imagination, and a genuine passion for literacy to everything he does.

"I can't think of a more wonderful person to champion the power of reading for our youngest storytellers."

Griffiths said he was honoured to be chosen for the position, adding he hoped to continue his mission of introducing kids to the power of reading.

"My passion for connecting children to the power of books, reading and literacy has been the driving force for my work as a children's author over the past three decades," he said.

Each laureate chooses a mission they hope to achieve during their tenure.

For Griffiths, the aim is to teach kids that reading is an adventure.

"I want them to see that reading requires courage and and it's an enormously rewarding activity, both in terms of the pleasure it can bring and also the life changing benefits of literacy," he told AAP.

Griffiths has sold more than 20 million copies of his 43 books including renowned collaborations with illustrator Terry Denton and his wife and editor Jill Griffiths.

He rose to national prominence in the 1990s off the back of his irreverent, unruly and loosely autobiographical Just! Series, published by Pan Macmillan.

But it was the Treehouse series, beginning with the 13-Storey Treehouse published in 2011, that made Griffiths an international bestseller.

His next book, Let's Go, is illustrated by Bill Hope and will be released on February 24 to coincide with the start of his term as laureate.