March
is National Reading Month--time to celebrate kids' books and their authors.
Today's featured book guy is Dav Pilkey, a very silly man with a middle school
juvenile sense of humor. Who is Dav Pilkey you ask? Well, adults might not know
the name, but kids will recognize him as the author/illustrator of graphic novels and kids books, notably Captain Underpants. Pilkey has many
well-loved kids books and graphic novels to his credit. But his most enduring
is the supremely ridiculous "Captain Underpants" stories. Oh and
grownups, graphic novels are stories told in cartoons or comics, not dirty
books! Jeff Kinney author of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series is another
graphic novels writer.
So
Captain Underpants is a farsical superhero, but then anti-heroes are kind of en
vogue right now with Deadpool. And Kylo Ren--kids love that Star Wars bad guy
almost as much as his evil dad Darth Vader. People must be tired of the
schmaltzy superhero good guy. Captain Underpants is a good--but very
weird--guy. Along with his sidekick, Super Diaper Baby he battles The Wicked
Wedgie Woman, The Lunch Ladies from Outer Space, Bionic Booger Boy (!) and
Professor Poopypants. Children (especially boys) adore the title alone. As you
might suspect the Captain Underpants stories are filled with (gross, just heard
it!) puerile humor so loved by lower elementary school students. So how about
some free printable Captain Underpants fun, to get your "fill" of silly,
slightly sickening second grade comedy?
Dav
Pilkey has several another popular series stories: Ricky Ricotta's Mighty
Robot, The Dumb Bunnies, Big Dog and Little Dog, Dragon and two which are
almost as popular as Captain Underpants--Kat Kong and Dogzilla. Pilkey uses
pictures of his pets in these books. They too are very immature and goofy. The
author has written and illustrated quite a few non-series serious books that
are well-loved also. His book The Paperboy was chosen as a runner up for the
prestigious Caldecott picture book award.
His
website is full of fun stuff to do. Web pages are laid out like graphic novels
and feature his messy handwriting font. There are fun Dav Pilkey kids book games. There are severalfree printable flip-o-rama kids book games that show how a movie is made
from scenes or sketches. Best of all, Dav has put about twenty free
printable Captain Underpants
coloring pages and coloring pages and other kids book games. on his website.
This site has a free printable Captain
Underpantsbookmark.
Dav
Pilkey gets some cr*p for his potty humor (pun intended) but maybe children's
literature needs more silly stories, to un-stuffy it. It's good to see authors
not only writing and but creating kids book games and activities based on their
works. Enjoy these free printable kids book games activities and read his books.
For more free printable kids book games, crafts, activities, coloring and
lesson plans visit the Grand Rapids Parenting Examiner blogs Free Printable Lesson Plans and Free Coloring Pages 4U and Kidz Literature.
