Dav Pilkey

By Laura Bartnik & Katie Bradley

Dav Pilkey was born on March 4, 1966 in Cleveland Ohio. He has a mom, dad and a sister. Before school, instead of playing outside, he would draw pictures of animals, super heroes and monsters.

He spells his name Dav because at one of his jobs the label maker was broken and instead of spelling Dave it just did Dav. He's used it ever since!

At school, everybody thought Dav was a good class clown, except his teacher. He got in trouble so much he had a permanent desk outside in the hallway.

While he was in the hallway he started drawing and making stories. He made comics and had a lot of Superheroes. (This is where he invented Captain Underpants flying in the city in his underwear and giving wedgies to the bad guys!) One teacher used to rip up his books because she said he couldn't spend

the rest of his life making silly books.

All of the teachers didn't like Dav Pilkey. The high school Dav Pilkey went to was very strict, and the teachers hated his humor even more. They said they didn't like his drawings or his stories. His principal told him he could never make a living by being an artist.

Then he went to college. He went to Kent State University in Ohio and decided to major in art. One of his professors complimented him on his writing skills and encouraged him to write books. Dav was surprised, but decided to try it. He started writing his first book. He entered a contest, called The National Written and Illustrated by…Awards Contests for Students, and he won! His first book, World War Won was published.

After college, he and his good friend Cynthia Rylant (who is also a great author) decided to move. So in 1993 they took their dogs and cats and moved to Oregon. Dav Pilkey has published twenty six books so far.

“I never try to "think" up a story, stories just come to me. I live a very simple life, and often spend several hours each day just daydreaming. It is usually during these times that my ideas come to me.”

“It's good to know that even if you're not successful in school, you can still be successful in life. (Thomas Edison was terrible at school, but he turned out o.k!)”

Caldecot honor, for The Paperboy

“The painters who have influenced me most as an artist are Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Rousseau, and Marc Chagall.”

"The Big Dog & Little Dog books started out as a joke. I was trying to make my friend laugh by making up stupid little stories about two of our dogs. Later that night, I started thinking that these might actually be pretty good books for toddlers. So I sat down and wrote the first four stories."

Captain Underpants is actually 36 years old, Dave created him in 3rd grade!

Fun and Awesome Website

http://www.pilkey.com http://library.thinkquest.org/J001156/

author%20reviews/sl_pilkey_bio.htm http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2022/

Pilkey-Dav-1966.html