The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby By Dav Pilkey (Blue Sky Press, 128 pages, $4.99) George and Harold decide to invent a new superhero. A SERIOUS

MISSION Dav Pilkey’s writing has an important focus: to get kids to read By KAREN MACPHERSON Pittsburgh Post-Gazette As a writer and illustrator, Dav Pilkey has a serious mission: to convince reluctant readers to give books a try.
So far, Pilkey’s efforts seem to be paying off. There are more than 14 million of his books in print. Kids count the days until his next book comes out. And many librarians credit him with transforming book-avoiding youngsters into readers.
What’s Pilkey’s secret? It’s simple: he writes about underpants - “Captain Underpants,” to be exact.
His books, filled with goofy, childlike illustrations, detail how two students, George and Harold, use their hypnotic powers to transform their bad-spirited school principal into the amazing Captain Underpants. Dressed only in a cape and white underpants, the good Captain flies through the skies, helping to keep the world safe by giving wedgies to bad guys.
“I think underwear is funny because you’re not supposed to laugh at it,” Pilkey said in a recent interview, which was conducted - like most of his interviews are - via e-mail.
Not everyone is a fan of Pilkey’s work. Some adults regard the books as puerile or worse and believe Pilkey is pandering to children’s penchant for potty humor. They also are angered by MISSION on Page 9D
MISSION: HEADLINEHERE MISSION: Kids also enjoy the ‘Flip-O-Ramas’
Continued from 8D the anti-authority tone in the books. Some people are so upset that they have successfully petitioned to have Pilkey’s books pulled from the shelves in libraries and schools in several cities. This infuriates Pilkey, who contends that his books aren’t vulgar or inappropriate, but rather tap into a type of kid humor that many adults just don’t get.
“Book banning is always a travesty,” Pilkey adds. “During World War II, more than 290,000 American soldiers gave their lives in battle to protect our country from that kind of oppression. Banning books is not only disrespectful to our veterans, it’s an intolerable example to set for our children.”
Pilkey also argues that the potty humor in his books is what helps hook reluctant readers. As someone with attention deficit disorder, Pilkey knows first-hand how daunting reading can be for some children. In fact, his own reading difficulties inspired the format of the “Captain Underpants” books.
“I intentionally designed the books so they’d have large type, lots of pictures, and very short chapters. I think these things make the books seem less intimidating to kids, and they gain a sense of accomplishment when they can read a whole ‘epic novel’ all by themselves in just a day or two.
“It’s my hope that these silly books of mine will not only make kids laugh (that’s really the most important thing) but also give kids confidence as readers and inspire them to seek out other books.”
Pilkey, 36, first realized what he calls “the amazing power of underwear” when he was in the second grade. His teacher used the word “underpants ” in a sentence, prompting guffaws from everyone in the class.
To Pilkey, it was a revelation. “Not only could underwear make kids laugh, but it could make my teacher very angry.”
The young Pilkey quickly turned the revelation into a comic book, which he worked on during the hours he spent at a special desk in the hall outside his classroom. The desk was reserved for Pilkey when he misbehaved, which was most of the time.
“One day, my teacher found one of my comics and tore it up, telling me I needed to get serious because I couldn’t spend the rest of my life making silly books. Lucky for me, I wasn’t a good listener,” Pilkey said.
The idea for the “Captain Underpants” books actually was born during those hallway drawing sessions. Years later, Pilkey dusted off the idea and wrote “The Adventures of Captain Underpants.”
Published by Scholastic in 1997, the book was an immediate hit with kids, who loved the idea of a principal running around in his underwear. Young readers also enjoyed the various “Flip-O-Ramas” featured in the book, which allowed them to “animate” a scene simply by flipping a page back and forth.
Since then, Pilkey has written five other “Captain Underpants” books (all with “Flip-O-Ramas”) and started a related series with his newest book, “The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby.” His next book, “The All-New Captain Underpants Extra-Crunchy Book O’ Fun 2,” is due out in August.
A two-book “Captain Underpants” adventure, titled “Captain Underpants and the Preposterious Plight of the Purple Potty People (Part 1 and 2)” will be published by Scholastic in the fall of 2003.
“This time, George and Harold have their hands full when they stumble upon a parallel universe and accidentally unleash the destructive powers of the terrifying ‘Captain Blunderpants,’ ” Pilkey says.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Pilkey was the youngest of two children. (On his Web site, www.pilkey.com, he describes his older sister Cindy as “a highly skilled professional tattletale.” Pilkey calls the years he spent in elementary school as “the dark ages,” adding that his four years in high school were “the really dark ages.”
After high school, Pilkey earned a two-year degree at Kent State University. During that time, he worked at a Pizza Hut where he was given a name tag that left the “e” off his first name of Dave. Pilkey decided he’d keep it that way.
At Kent State, Pilkey also learned about a contest for aspiring writers. He won the contest, had his first book, “World War Won,” published, and was off on a career as a children’s book author and artist.
Over the years, Pilkey has published two dozen children’s books, including “The Paperboy,” which won a Caldecott Honor for its beautifully-rendered illustrations. But Pilkey says he prefers writing the “Captain Underpants” books because he’d rather make people laugh.
These days, Pilkey lives in Eugene, Ore., just down the street from his girlfriend, Newbery Medal-winning author Cynthia Rylant, whose books include “Missing May” and the popular “Henry and Mudge” and “Poppleton” series for beginning readers.
And, while Pilkey loves writing for kids, he’s not planning to have any of his own.
“To me, kids are like elephants: I really like them - I just don’t want them in my house.”