Dav Pilkey
Dav Pilkey
David Murray "Dav" Pilkey, Jr. is an American author and illustrator of children's literature. Pilkey is the author and illustrator of the Captain Underpants book series. He also uses the pen names George Beard and Harold Hutchins, which are the names of two of the main characters in the aforementioned series...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionChildren's Author
Date of Birth4 March 1966
CityCleveland, OH
CountryUnited States of America
I've learned never to underestimate the sense of humor of a kid, ... But does it matter if the joke flies over a kid's head? No. As long as my girlfriend thinks it's funny, it stays.
I thought it was the coolest thing on TV,
Having a sense of fun in books is a huge, huge deal, because a lot of times kids - even me when I got to third or fourth grade - don't associate reading with fun.
I had A.D.D., ... I had a lot of trouble, um... what was the question again?
I think if you can show a kid that reading can actually be fun, it can make you laugh, inspire imagination - that can make a huge difference, that can help a child who's struggling with reading to really look at it differently.
My reading preferences are kind of all over the board - I read nonfiction, I read graphic novels...
These 'mistakes' occur in my books for a reason. I have an agenda: I'm secretly trying to inspire kids to create their own stories and comics, and I don't want them to feel stifled by 'perfectionism.'
Most kids are smarter than most grown-ups. Kids see the world in black and white... They look through all the garbage and see a world run by fools and dullards and lazy people. And there's nothing they can do about it because they have no power.
A book without potty humor is like a banana split without hot fudge. It can still be good, I suppose, but you kinda get the feeling that something is missing.
Encourage kids to be creative without worrying about being perfect.
My goal with The Adventures of Captain Underpants was to invent a style which was almost identical to that of a picture book - in a novel format. So I wrote incredibly short chapters and tried to fill each page with more pictures than words. I wanted to create a book that kids who don't like to read would want to read.
Nothing prevents boredom like a good book.
I think my funny books are my favorites because I like to laugh so much.
Once I have the story in my head, I write it down. The illustrations usually come last.