An Open Letter to Dav Pilkey
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart
Dear Dav,
I was still in school myself when the Captain Underpants books came out. I thought they were silly and a little weird and I’d never gotten into graphic novels. But I am grateful, every day, to all my classmates who thought they were wonderful. Every friend who stood beside me at the Scholastic Book Fair and begged their parents for the Captain Underpants story kept them on the shelf for years and years and years. Thank God.
Because this is what I know about you from the backs of your books and from your website:
When Dav Pilkey was a kid, he was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. He was so disruptive in class that his teachers made him sit out in the hallway every day. Luckily, Dav loved to draw and make up stories, so he spent his time in the hallway creating his own original comic books — the very first adventures of Dog Man and Captain Underpants.
Twenty-five years later, every time I read your bio on the back of a book my son is in love with, I tear up. See, my kid is in first grade. Though it hasn’t been diagnosed yet, he almost certainly has severe ADHD. I spend a lot of time in my emails and on the phone and in person talking to the school about his impulsiveness. His behavior stuff. The issues he has.
