Bookathon - P

P is for Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut. Or Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants. Since Margaret Atwood's last name doesn't begin with P, Dav Pilkey wins out this time today.

Dav Pilkey is a dyslexic writer so you have to forgive him for mixing up all genres and doodling in his books. There's 14 Captain Underpants books and they have been a big favourite amongst boys of a certain age, until they were eclipsed by the wild success of the spin off series Dog Man, about a half man/half dog 'superhero'  who is beloved by both boys and girls from 5 and up, as well as cats, dogs, and chickens. They enjoy being read to as well. I have actually read Mothering Heights to my chicken, Martha. She really liked it.

I'm sure Marvel and DC Comics are phoning their copyright lawyers now for having their cherished comics made fun of in this manner. I have to say that I never read Captain America, or Wonder Woman and the only person I could relate to wearing their underpants on the outside was Madonna. Though Superman had a big S on his chest, I'm sure he was imaginary. But if I were to cosplay anyone surely it would be Catwoman, because she was really a Selina (Kyle) in disguise. Dog Man had to spin off again and that's how we got to Cat Kid Comic Club, where the tadpoles make their own comic books to rival Hello Kitty.

I am serious about these books. You won't find a kid in primary school who does not want to pick up a Dog Man book and laugh themselves silly, but the thing is they are READING even if the words are all spelled wrong and back to front and the policeman is half dog and half human. It's crazy and has all these references that only adults will get, because I'm sure the young Dog Man readers will not have read or picked up all the references to the classics Dav Pilkey riffs off in his titles - Mothering Heights, Fetch 22, To whom the Ball Rolls, Lord of the Fleas*, 20,000 Fleas under the sea, and Grime and Punishment. 

My Scholastic sales rep says without a doubt this series is the biggest seller of all. And for most of the appeal is that these books are published in hardback, are in full colour, and contain flip-o-ramas. What's that? You'll have to borrow them to find out and no you cannot have the same experience with an e-book. 

*I don't recommend the actual Lord of the Flies. Please don't read that book it gives me nightmares and shouldn't be assigned high school reading. Especially for high schoolers who actually came from the remote Pacific Islands that those horrible British boys were supposedly stuck on playing out like a bad episode of Survivor and the worst of colonialism. How about the reverse -  a series where islanders try to survive in the city? 

Funnily enough Dav Pilkey's other series, Ricky Ricotta about a futuristic sci-fi mouse and his side kick robot does not attract readers at all and is left languishing on the shelf, and I think its because Geronimo Stilton has the mouse's share of fabumouse books in his long running series that makes use of every mouse pun possible in all languages (the original stories are translated from Italian). 

Otherwise P is a very popular letter. 

I have written about Sylvia Plath in another blog post. And this whole business of Pride (and Prejudice) is surely rather strange. If I were to get people really thinking about what the word Pride means, as well as Prejudice and how it goes before a fall...I would give them a copy of Marcus Pfister's book The Rainbow Fish. 

Please humble yourselves and support the Great Kiwi Bookathon this month, blind and low vision children may not be able to see, but they CAN read with our generous support.