The Library of Congress and Captain Underpants creator Dav Pilkey are teaming up to help save kids from quarantine boredom.
Pilkey, the children’s author whose other book series include Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot and Big Dog and Little Dog, will contribute video content to a new project called Dav Pilkey at Home, which will be broadcast Friday mornings on the websites of the Library of Congress and publisher Scholastic, as well as on social media.
Scholastic already has a 60-second video on its site, featuring Pilkey drawing Lil’ Petey, a character from his Dog Man series. “He’s always looking on the bright side of life,” Pilkey explains about the orange kitten, “and I think that’s an important thing to do, especially when times are tough.”
The Library of Congress and Scholastic have other content planned to keep kids and their families entertained during COVID-19 shelter-in-place measures, the Library said in a news release, including “how-to-draw demonstrations, engaging read-alouds, and inspiring resources from the Library’s collections.”
The Library has older book fans in mind as well. Each weekday, its National Book Festival blog will post a video of an author appearing at the annual event, with different genres each getting their own day. The first video, featuring chef and nonprofit founder José Andrés, went live on Monday.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
