To celebrate book week, Gin Gin Hospital was involved in Paint Gin Gin REaD an early literacy community program that encourages the whole community to read, sing, talk, draw and move.
Gin Gin Hospital put together a Dogman, Cat Kid and Captain Underpants theme to celebrate these much-loved children's book series by author Dav Pilkey.
The book series were chosen as they are both funny and easy for children to read, and full of encouragements and sweet messages between the utter silliness.
Whether it's a subtle show of misspelled, crossed out words done to normalise mistakes; or the 'bad' guy being constantly asked "why?" by his side kick until he's forced to explain where his difficult feelings are really coming from, clearly walking children through the process of self-reflection and letting go, Dav's stories are perfect for all children.
As a child, Dav was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, and spent his formative school years being discouraged because of the difficulties he faced, including having a teacher rip up the comic book he was writing after being sent out of class, and telling him he, "couldn't spend the rest of his life writing silly books."
This only inspired him further to not only write silly books, but to use these silly books to uplift other kids who might be growing up in a brain that is full of busy, creative, and exciting thoughts.
Dav writes for the children who can't sit still, who's imaginations run away on them, and who have trouble understanding why they are thinking, feeling, and acting on intense emotions.
Seeing the positive impact reading these book series was having on her own child with ADHD, a staff member at Gin Gin hospital put forward the theme for Book Week, hoping to further spread the messages cleverly written in these silly books.
Encouraging creativity without the pressure of perfection is something Dav Pilkey certainly achieves in his books, and every child can benefit from.