Dog Man Book Release Party
First posted August 30th, 2019
It started in Lego Club in April. I was chatting with a group of kids about their reading lives and they expressed their interest in us hosting a program about Dog Man by Dav Pilkey. I checked the upcoming releases list and discovered that the latest book, Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls, would be published in August and our plans were hatched. On August 16, we hosted our highly-anticipated Dog Man Book Release Party and it was just as fun as we hoped it would be!
We began our program by having a photo opp with the super fancy Dog Man cardboard standee, enabling the kids to be in a picture with the Dog Man superhero personas. (A note about the standee since so many people have asked about it: You can reach out to your Scholastic rep (such as book fair or marketing) directly to see if they can provide one for your library program.)
We started our program by making movies! We gathered copies of the Dog Man series, along with three copies of the new book to raffle away at the program, for the kids to hold. We then made a joyous “happy book birthday” video for Dav Pilkey, which was shared on our social media accounts. It made my day when I saw that Dav Pilkey saw our fan video, liked it & commented on it. We also made a thank-you video for Lizette Serrano, the Executive Director of Educational Marketing at Scholastic, who had generously provided us with giveaways for this program and is a dedicated advocate for libraries. She is the absolute best!
We were then ready to jump into our celebration of the latest Dog Man book. We watched the action-packed trailer, which you can watch below.
We also watched a fascinating video with Dav Pilkey sharing the origins of Dog Man and his struggles with school. Some kids shared details that they knew from reading the author’s notes in the back of the Captain Underpants series. They were impressed that the idea for Dog Man came to him in 2nd grade! One young person shared that his differences became his superpowers.
It was now time for our Dog Man Storytime, where we hosted a reader’s theater performance of the first chapter of the new Dog Man. We asked kids to play different characters – and the entire group was responsible for the sound effects and group parts. Ann, our Early Literacy Librarian, led this fun activity, reading the narration dramatically and hilariously and signaling everyone when it was their part.
But then… disaster struck when Dog Man and Petey were cloned throughout the room and it was up to our intrepid fans to find them. Our group divided up between the two rooms with their clone scavenger hunt sheets in hand. Their job was to find all of the clones by their numbers. (Dog Man + math, for the win!) Many kids pointed out that they really enjoyed this part of the program on the evaluations. One awesome kid proudly proclaimed that he had found all the Petey clones, so when others had trouble, he kindly helped them find the ones they were missing. When people completed the scavenger hunt, they handed in their sheets to get a post-it for our Supa-Epic raffle. You can host your own clone scavenger hunt at home using the materials here.
We were then ready for our requested craft: Flip-O-Rama. We had tables full of art supplies, flip-o-rama templates, post-it flipbooks, and flip book templates to color. We put diagrams of how to draw the characters on the board, along with some flip-o-rama examples. Kids could participate in whatever way they felt comfortable. It was powerful seeing kids create art and be creative in their individual ways.
Our group was then given the opportunity to join Dav Pilkey in his Do Good campaign to make a positive impact in their community. Knowing our kids’ passion for animals, I knew the perfect way to Do Good together. Everyone enthusiastically accepted the challenge to create dog toys to donate to shelter dogs. As promised, you can learn how to make the dog toys by following the video below. You can also stop at the library at any time and I’d be happy to teach you how to make dog toys. And when you’re done with your toy, drop it off at the library, so we can share it with the shelter dog who will love it!
We then had everyone fill out an evaluation since we always want feedback about how our programs went and how we can improve. And everyone who completed a survey got a Dog Man swag bag, thanks to Lizette from Scholastic!
Thank you, Lizette, for this amazing swag to share with our Dog Man fans!
We also raffled off three copies Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls and a MerryMakers Dog Man stuffed animal that both Ann and I had a hard time parting with… but we’re super happy that they’ve all found good homes. And don’t worry if you didn’t get a copy of Dog Man. You can always put a copy on hold at our library here!
I am so grateful for the help of Supa Buddies, Ann, Emily, & Matt who helped out during this program, ensuring everything ran smoothly and getting some amazing videos and pictures to capture this memorable event.
If you couldn’t make it to our Dog Man party, you can still get a Dog Man swag bag while supplies last. Just ask for one at the Youth and Teen Services desk – and take the Do Good challenge. And you can always print out Dog Man activities from Scholastic!
But, wait, there’s more! I learned from a caregiver at this program that Dog Man: The Musical is coming to town in March 2020 at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts!
But now I know you’re facing a quandary: your young reader has read ALL of the Dog Man books and is hungry for more hilarious, engaging, and fun books to explore! Check out these Dog Man Readalikes. You can put copies on hold in our catalog. Stop by the library for your own print copy of the list. You can also make your own version using my Canva template.
