3 Ways To Encourage Reluctant Readers with Dav Pilkey

3 ways to encourage reluctant readers with Dav Pilkey

Dav Pilkey may be a prolific children’s author, but long before he created the bestselling Captain Underpants graphic novels and the beloved Dog Man series, this celebrated writer and illustrator struggled to learn how to read. “I grew up with ADHD and dyslexia, and sometimes I felt like a total misfit when I was a kid,” says Pilkey.

Despite his diagnosis, he persevered in the classroom and beyond, and gained a life-long love of literacy in the process. After spending years entertaining school-age kids with his laugh-out-loud novels, this inspiring role model shares three practical tips on how to encourage children to fall in love with books, and become lifelong readers.

Let young readers choose their own books

Set kids off on a reading adventure by letting them peruse the shelves on trips to the bookstore and library. The goal is that if they get to choose their own books, they’ll be excited to dive into the journey waiting for them on the next page. While it might seem noble to steer kids towards academic or literary material, you don’t want to scare them off reading. Feel free to make suggestions and share your childhood picks, but ultimately, let them choose what to sink their teeth into.

“My primary goal with Captain Underpants is to make kids laugh and to give them a positive experience with reading at a crucial time in their development,” said Pilkey in an article for The Guardian. If kids have fun reading, they’ll want to keep at it. And that’s exactly what happened with Pilkey. As a child, he gravitated towards books he genuinely enjoyed—unsurprisingly, that meant comic books, funny books and joke books.

Aerial shot of the kids book Dog Man For Whom the Ball Rolls by Dav Pilkey on a light wooden table with a lined notebook in the bottom left corner.

Make friends with characters

Who’s Dav Pilkey’s favourite character in his hit Dog Man series? It’s Petey (the cat). “He’s such a positive little guy,” says Pilkey. By reading (and rereading) a series, children can fall for their favourite characters, too. Once a child gets fully immersed in a series—like Captain Underpants or Dog Man—these characters will start to feel like old friends. And who wouldn’t want to keep reading and follow along on their adventures?

There are so many series, filled with loveable characters, aimed at young readers—from picture books to novels, free of illustrations. By getting into a series, kids always have an opportunity to discover a new story and let their imaginations soar.

Read, reread and repeat

As a youngster, Pilkey would reread his favourite books over and over. So don’t fret if your child seems to gravitate towards the same books and authors—and try not to switch to autopilot if you’re reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar aloud every night. Remember, rereading provides valuable lessons for burgeoning book worms and can help you raise a reader for life.

According to Scholastic, kids soak up new information, make deeper connections and truly learn something each time they read through, or hear, a story. Think about a book you read as a child that you picked up again later in life—perhaps it was one of the Harry Potter books, The Giver or A Wrinkle in Time. Upon rereading, you probably picked up on plot points and character quirks you missed the first time around. It’s the same for kids—the more familiar they become with a book, and an author’s writing style, the more confidence they’ll gain to move on to their next read. For Pilkey, rereading was essential. “I think that’s why I’m still a reader today, he says. “Because I kept trying and never gave up.”

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