Captain Underpants Author Dav Pilkey – The Super Power of Imagination!
Dav Pilkey, the inventor of Captain Underpants, has achieved some great success in his life. Although he had awesome parents who always supported him, things did start out so great for him as a young student. He was criticized in school by his teachers. He had a hard time focusing in class. And he didn’t really fit in with the other kids.
So what he did was use his strengths, imagination and creativity, to think of a better world! What it resulted in was characters like Captain Underpants, who he started dreaming up in 2nd grade! He took the bad things that were happening to him and turned it into drawings and stories that were simply amazing!
But his teachers were not amused or impressed. They didn’t like his stories or drawings. Until, one day, in college, one of his teachers took note of his talents and suggested he write children’s books.
So he started writing and he created a book. But then no one wanted to publish it. He got rejected by 20 publishers before one agreed to do it.
And from there, he made boy humor history! He has now sold over 80 million books like Dog Man and Captain Underpants, and recently helped make a movie!
Dav is not done. He has many stories left in him and also a desire to help other kids find their talents and become the best version of themselves. He also wants to help kids read more. Reading was another key thing to Dav as it let him escape and imagine new worlds when things were not going his way.
Watch these interviews with Dav to learn more about his amazing and inspiring story!
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interview with kid reporter
Additional Resources:
- Check out Dav’s website to learn more about him and all of his amazing books!
- Read other IMK articles about reading and writing
- Interested in becoming an author yourself? Here is a list of child authors.
- Check out IMK’s list of inspiring quotes for kids about writing and storytelling
Topics for Discussion:
- What character traits did Dav exhibit over his life?
- How did Dav turn his problems into something good?
- What kinds of things do you dream about? Have you ever thought about a character or person that never existed?
- Do you think you could write a book or story about something? What would it be?
Take Action:
- Explore becoming an author yourself! Check out becoming a kid author on how to do it! And check out Dav’s website for activities to help you get started!
- Would you like to improve your writing skills? Or work with a real author to create a book? Fun Creative Writing can help you become a better writer and even a published author!
- If you have a story in mind or already written, here is a list of contests that you may want to enter into. And here is another kid writing contest list.
