I started writing books when I was in elementary school. I was the class clown, and I was constantly getting in trouble for making other kids laugh.

In the second grade I learned how to make the most glorious noises by pressing my hands firmly into my face and blowing really hard. Soon I graduated to more sophisticated forms of levity, like seeing how many crayons I could stick up my nose at one time, burping the alphabet, and playing “Onward Christian Soldiers” on my armpit. (I went to parochial school.)

As you might imagine, my teachers were not very supportive of my particular brand of humor. At first, they started sending me out into the hallway. After a while, I was spending so much time out in the hall that they put a little desk out there for me. I was the only kid in school with my own private desk in the hallway, and it was at this desk that I had my first experience creating books.

 

Every day before classes began I would make sure that my hallway desk was stocked full of paper, crayons, pencils, and magic markers. Then at some point during the day, I would do something really silly and disruptive. . . and get caught. My teacher would stop everything, look me straight in the eye, point a bony finger at the door, and shout, “Mr. Pilkey — OUT!”

There in the hallway, I would sit down at my desk, take out my drawing supplies, and start creating. In the beginning, I only drew pictures, but as time went on (my hallway desk followed me through the end of fifth grade) I began making up stories, too. I used to staple sheets of paper together and make my own comic books. I invented a whole slew of superheroes, including “The Amazing Captain Underpants,” who flew around the city giving wedgies to all the bad guys.

These comic books were a real hit with my classmates; however, they weren't too popular with my teachers. I remember one teacher who, after furiously ripping up one of my stories, told me I'd better start taking life a little more seriously, because I couldn't spend the rest of my days making silly books.

Fortunately I wasn't a very good listener.

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