My absence from blogging has been due in part to my presence in podcasting. For the past year or so, I’ve been recording and posting my podcast Inside the Writer’s Studio, in which I talk with writers about their lives, their craft, their business, and their latest work. With over 2500 downloads so far, the podcast has gone from a small outreach project for Bookmarks to a show with listeners across the US and around the world. I love talking with other writers and reading their books in depth and with a thought towards an upcoming interview.
My latest podcast was one of my favorites. I’ll admit, with no small children in the house for the past decade or two, I had not encountered Captain Underpants until about a year ago, when my nephew Will heard I was starting a podcast. “If you could interview Dav Pilkey,” he said, “that would be awesome.” Will was right.
Dav is the author of the million-selling series Captain Underpants and Dogman, and his books have been credited with getting a whole generation of reluctant readers exciting about books and reading. When I heard he was coming to this year’s Bookmarks Festival of Books and Authors in Winston-Salem, I made two phone calls. First, I called my brother and told him he had to bring Will to hear Dav Pilkey. Second, I called Dav’s wonderful publicist to see if Dav would be willing to come on my show.
Those two phone calls led to an interview in which I chatted with Dav Pilkey after he had just appeared before 3000 screaming kids at our local minor-league baseball park. But the best part of the interview was that Will had come from Atlanta for the occasion, and I was able to include him in our discussion. He got to ask Dav some questions, and share some of his own homemade graphic novels with his idol.
I don’t remember the first time I met the author of a book I had already read and admired, but I know this—I was a lot older than ten. I love that we live in a world where kids—Will and those 3000 other school children—have the opportunity to see and even meet the men and women who have inspired them to read.
As I was packing up my equipment after the interview, I looked across the room and there were Will and Dav chatting away like old friends. Dav spoke to Will as he would to a peer. “We’re just two guys who draw graphic novels,” seemed to be his attitude. Before we left, Dav said to Will, “Let’s each draw a picture of a the Petey the Cat.” They picked up their pens and a minute later had both drawn the same character. But Dav took it one step further. Not only did he inscribe his drawing with a message for Will and give it to my nephew, but he asked Will to do the same. As we left, Will was walking on air, knowing that his idol Dav Pilkey was now carrying a Will Lovett original drawing with him.
I’ve met a lot of generous and kind authors during the past few year, but Dav Pilkey reached a whole new level. I watched all day as he treated kids like equals and gave unstintingly of his time to sign thousands of books (every one of those 3000 kids, most of whom attend Title I schools, got a free signed book to take home courtesy of Bookmarks). When he found out Bookmarks was raising money to put over 300 new books in every public school library in our school system, he donated $8000 to the cause, $1000 for each of the schools who came to see him at the ballpark. He gave away more in gift certificates to Bookmarks to encourage kids to read. All that was amazing. They way he interacted with my nephew—that was the definition of a superhero.
During the fall publishing season, Inside the Writer’s Studio publishes new episodes on the 10, 20, and 30 of each month. Coming soon—Anne Bogel, aka The Modern Mrs. Darcy; Newberry Medal winner Kelly Barnhill; Middle grade writer Alan Gratz, and more.
