(person) by junkpile Thu Nov 09 2000 at 18:05:54

Dav Pilkey was born on March 4, 1966, in Cleveland, Ohio. When he was little, he laughed in his sleep.

Dav hated school.   "There was never any room in school for creativity or spontaneity. It seemed like all they were teaching us was conformity."   By first grade, Dav had cornered the title of class clown. He was the undisputed king of funny noises ("in the second grade I learned how to make the most glorious flatulence noises"), and held the classroom record for the number of crayons he could fit up his nose. He set the school record for most time spent in the principal's odffice.

Dav was diagnosed with ADD and severe hyperactivity, but that didn't earn him any sympathy from his teachers.   "My teacher started sending me out into the hallway. After a while, I was spending so much time standing . . . that my teacher put a little desk out there for me. I would walk into the classroom just expecting to get into trouble, and usually my expectations came true. Sometime during the day (often several times) I would do something really silly and disruptive, and get caught red-handed. My teacher would stop everything, look me straight in the eye, point a bony, wrinkled finger toward the door and shout, 'Mr. Pilkey - OUT!'   And all at once I was free. No rows of desks, no lined paper, no worksheets, no math problems . . . no problems at all! Just a peaceful hallway with big white walls and the soothing hum of a nearby drinking fountain. It was my first real studio."

At first he only drew pictures, but soon he was adding stories, and he began stapling the pages together to make books. His first character was Captain Underpants, who flew around giving the bad guys wedgies. Quite a hit with his classmates, quite infuriating to his teachers, one of whom ripped up his stories and told Dav he'd never amount to anything, and that he couldn't spend the rest of his life drawing silly pictures.   "Fortunately, I wasn't a very good listener."

In high school, Dav worked at Pizza Hut.   "One day they made a name tag for me, but the label maker was broken . . . it wouldn't print out the letter e. So my name tag just read 'Dav.' I've spelled it that way ever since."

In 1984, Dav Pilkey went to Kent State University as an art major. One of Dav's freshman-year professors complimented him on his writing skills, and encouraged him to write books. Dav did. He entered his first book, World War Won, in a contest for students who wrote and illustrated their own books. He won. The prize was publication of his book. He was ecstatic.

After the book's publication, Dav moved back to Ohio, where he met a charming lady at a writer's group. They fell in love and moved to Oregon together. The charming lady was CYNTHIA RYLANT!

Dav is a full-time children's author and illustrator. His ideas come to him while daydreaming, which he says takes up several hours of each day. He lives in the quiet hills of Eugene, Oregon. Cynthia lives down the street, and they enjoy walking their respective dogs to each other's houses for hot tea and quiet conversation and smooching.


Books:
(note: Dav illustrated some of these, wrote some, and did both to some.)

The Adventures of Captain Underpants

Big Dog, and Little Dog Getting in Trouble

Big Dog and Little Dog Going for a Walk

Big Dog and Little Dog Making a Mistake

Big Dog, Little Dog Wearing Sweaters

Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets

Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space

Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants

Dog Breath! The Horrible Trouble With Hally Tosis

Dogzilla

Don't Pop Your Cork on Mondays: The Children's Anti-Stress Book

Dragon Gets By

Dragon's Fat Cat

Dragon's Halloween

Dragon's Merry Christmas

The Dumb Bunnies

The Dumb Bunnies' Easter

The Dumb Bunnies Go to the Zoo

A Friend for Dragon

God Bless the Gargoyles

The Hallo-Wiener

Julius

Kat Kong: Starring Flash, Rabies, and Dwayne and Introducing Blueberry As the Monster

Make Way for Dumb Bunnies

The Moonglow Roll-O-Rama

The Paperboy

Ricky Ricotta's Giant Robot

Ricky Ricotta's Giant Robot Vs. the Mutant Mosquitoes from Mercury

The Silly Gooses

The Silly Gooses Build a House

Silly Stories: To Tickle Your Funny Bone

Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving

When Cats Dream


thanks to:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/authorsandbooks/authors/pilkey/tscript.htm
http://www.edupaperback.org/authorbios/pilkeyd.html
www.pilkey.com
www.amazon.com

I like it! 1 C!

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