Win tickets to Captain Underpants: the First Epic Movie – plus an activity pack

Hey kids! Win a prize to celebrate the release of Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie on 28 September.

The author Dav Pilkey is passionate about promoting reading and writing and we have a Captain Underpants prize pack to give away to a lucky library member, including:

• 2 movie passes to see ‘Captain Underpants: the First Epic Movie’ at any Christchurch Hoyts cinema, and a Captain Underpants activity book pack.  Thanks to Hoyts Northlands for supplying the movie passes!
• All you need to is make up your own creative title for a pretend Captain Underpants book and complete the entry form.
• This competition is open to ages 5 to 18.

Want some book title inspiration?

• Borrow the Captain Underpants book series
• Find all the Dav Pilkey books in our collection
• Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Captain Underpants!
• Farty pants
• Dog Man Unleashed at the Library

Terms and Conditions

1. Competition is open until 5pm Monday 18 September 2017.
2. All winners will be announced on the Christchurch City Libraries Facebook page, and website.
3. Entries must have all correct contact details completed on the entry form.
4. Maximum one entry per child.
5. We will notify winners by telephone and/or email. Please ensure membership contact details are up-to-date.
6. Employees of Christchurch City Council are not eligible to enter the prize draw. Their immediate families are allowed to enter.
7. If you are a winner, you consent to your name, photograph, entry and/or interview being used for reasonable publicity purposes by Christchurch City Libraries.
8. The judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
9. Prize are as stated and are not transferable.

Dog Man Unleashed at the Library

Bow-wowie! Who let the dogs out? The second in the Dog Man series Dog Man Unleashed has just been um, unleashed, and Dog Man is on tour across Christchurch City Libraries.

Dog Man is the newest hero from the creator of Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey. There’s something fishy in Dog Man Unleashed when Dog Man gets his boss, the Chief of Police, a freaky fish who accidentally ingests ‘supa brain dots’ instead of fish food and masterminds a treasure chests heist. The chief suspect however is Dog Man’s nemesis Petey the criminal cat, who gets taken to jail but manages to slip away by making himself as flat as paper and unfolding some origami outmaneuvers. Things turn a bit keystone cops and the puns are lots of fun (the fish costs “five bucks plus tacks”). And when Petey uses a phone booth, mailbox, newspaper, fax machine and a VCR player as weapons, on-looking kids have no idea what these things even are! Watch out for the Obey Spray and the Love Ray whose powers go awry and things turn a bit Jurassic Bark when Dog Man gets thrown the biggest bone ever. Speaking of paper tricks, Pilkey’s famous Flip-o-rama animated action is back too. (And don’t worry if you haven’t read the previous related books – there’s a quick recap of Dog Man’s genesis at the start).

Parents be warned, as the Chief sums up at the end of the story: “nobody learned anything… there was no atonement… no rebirth… no revelations… and not an ounce of character development or personal growth… it was all just a buncha mindless action and dumb luck” …Perfect! The kids will love it. The silliness in Pilkey’s books is so appealing to young children and his comics make a great ‘gateway’ to reading for kids who struggle with reading. (My son was so taken by Pilkeys ‘Hairy Potty’ character in Captain Underpants that one day he cut out menacing eyes and teeth from paper and taped them onto our toilet seat which gave us all a shock when we went to use the loo).

Dog Man on tour across Christchurch City Libraries. Here he is at Parklands Library with Olivia (L) and Hayley (R), January 2017

When Dog Man and Captain Underpants author Dav Pilkey last came to Christchurch a year and half ago, he delivered an inspiring presentation focusing on you can achieve despite learning and behavioural issues such as ADHD and dyslexia, like he had growing up. Dav was keen to point out that learning difficulties are no barrier to being creative or successful. When it was suggested to Dav as a child that he’d have to grow up and couldn’t write silly books the rest of his life, he proved them wrong. In fact, he mentioned many other notable dyslexics from Einstein and Beethoven through to Keira Knightley and Jamie Oliver. Dav’s slogan is: “Reading gives you Superpowers.”

Author Dav Pilkey meeting his fans at a public talk held at Fendalton Open-air School, May 2015.

Get into the libraries a grab a selfie with Dog Man himself.

Author of Captain Underpants, Superdiaper Baby and Ook & Gluk

Visit Planet Pilkey

Dave Pilkey website

Farty pants

   

If you like a bit of a giggle with your kids, here’s a couple of great subject headings that lead you down an amusing byway:

• Flatulence – Children’s fiction
• Underwear – Children’s fiction

And of course … Captain Underpants!

He is very popular at our house – we’ve just started on book two.

Happy rudey reading!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Captain Underpants!

Captain Underpants is one of the most popular book characters for kids and his books are hardly ever on the library shelves.His hilarious adventures have kids laughing out loud. On Sunday morning at the Auckland Writers Festival, I joined hundreds of Captain Underpants – both young and old – to listen to his creator Dav Pilkey talk about his books.

Here are 10 things you may not know about Dav Pilkey and Captain Underpants:

1. Dav Pilkey was a super happy kid because he could do what he liked all the time…until he started school. School wiped the smile off his face because he found it really hard.
2. He has ADHD and dyslexia but he hasn’t let this stop him from doing what he loves the most – writing and drawing comics.
3. His teacher gave him the idea for Captain Underpants when she used the world ‘underwear’ and all the kids in his class cracked up laughing. He discovered that underwear is very powerful. He drew his first picture of Captain Underpants that day.
4. That same teacher told him he couldn’t spend the rest of his life making ‘silly comic books’. He proved her wrong!
5. He likes to be close to nature and loves kayaking.
6. He has a pet giant beetle called Megalon.
7. He writes his books in a cave.
8. He has written two more Ricky Ricotta books because he pinky-swore to a kid a signing that he would finish the series.
9. The Adventures of Dog Man, written by George and Harold in kindergarten, is coming out next year. This will be Dav’s 60th book!
10. There is a new Captain Underpants book coming in August – Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinksalot. In this book we get to meet the adult versions of George and Harold.

Dav Pilkey’s presentation was full of action, thrills and laffs and was one of my favourite sessions of the Auckland Writers Festival.

Come and meet Dav Pilkey in Christchurch!

You too could meet Dav Pilkey in Christchurch this weekend. Dav is going to be talking and signing books at Fendalton School this Saturday 23 May from 12 to 1pm. If you would like to go along you’ll need a ticket, which can be collected from The Children’s Bookshop.

• Find works by Dav Pilkey in our catalogue
• Read our Auckland Writers Festival 2015 posts

Read a PROPER book

Something that happens heaps at the Children’s Desk is parents coming up and confiding “My child ONLY likes to read Rainbow Fairies/Captain Underpants/Famous Five/insert popular series here; how can I get them to read some proper books?” I’m sure even Roman Librarians were faced with parents saying “Meus parvulus tantum amo – I mean – my child ONLY likes to read Homer; how can I get them to read some proper books?” There are two things I normally tell parents in this situation :

1 – Any reading is good reading – comics, magazines, web pages even <groan> Dan Brown is perfectly satisfactory reading for any child. If your child likes to read, that’s awesome! Don’t get hung up on what they should be reading, just focus on what they enjoy.

2 – I used to read SUCH garbage when I was a kid and I turned out to be a wide-reading-modest-adult-genius: Sweet Valley High, Babysitters Club, Flowers in the Attic and pulp horror novels were all part of my reading diet, but it didn’t stop me from reading ‘proper’ books once I was a bit older.

One of the best things about my job is seeing kids tastes change and develop over time. It seems like it takes no time at all for a child to change from reserving all 84 (!)  books in the Rainbow Magic series, to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, or The Once and Future King.

If you want to read more about your child and reading, try “The Reading Bug”  by Paul Jennings or take a look at some of the reading resources for parents on our website.