The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

George and Harold are mischievous boys. They love to play practical jokes on people. They also love to create comic books of their made-up superhero, Captain Underpants. Mr. Krupp, their principal, finally catches George and Harold on tape pulling pranks. When he threatens to give the tape to the football team- the latest victim of their stunts- the boys say they will do anything Mr. Krupp wants as long as he doesn’t show the team. Mr. Krupp gives the boys a list of rules they must follow as well as chores they must complete for him. After weeks of living like this, the boys are growing tired, so they decide to buy a Hypno-Ring to hypnotize Mr. Krupp instead.

The ring works and they get the tape from Mr. Krupp, but then they decide to have a little fun while he is hypnotized. They make him act like a chicken, a monkey, and finally Captain Underpants. The boys are laughing so hard they don’t realize Mr. Krupp has climbed out the window to fight crime.

When the boys see him running away, they follow. He intercepts some bank robbers who are then captured by the police. Then there is an explosion at the Rare Crystal Shop and 2 robots get into a van. Their van drives past Captain Underpants and his cape gets caught. He gets pulled along as they drive off. The boys follow.

The van stops at an abandoned warehouse where the robots discover and tie up Captain Underpants. A tiny man wearing only a diaper, tells Captain Underpants he is the evil Dr. Diaper and he is about to take over the world with the Laser-Matic 2000. The boys create a diversion so Dr. Diaper leaves the room. Then they proceed to beat up the robots with wooden boards. After freeing Captain Underpants, they pull the self destruct lever on the Laser-Matic 2000. At this point, Dr. Diaper returns and points a laser gun at them. Captain Underpants shoots a pair of underwear at Dr. Diaper’s face and they take him to the police station.

They get Captain Underpants back to school and put him in his Mr. Krupp clothes. They can’t seem to undo the hypnosis, so they pour water over his head and he turns back into Mr. Krupp. What they don’t realize is that the instructions to the ring say not to pour water on someone’s head while hypnotized because they will slip back and forth between trance and reality whenever they hear fingers snapping.

The Adventures of Captain Underpants is exactly the kind of book you expect it to be. It has a simple plot line and is mostly about the laughs it is trying to produce. While the author certainly could have pushed the envelope farther with the potty humor and such, it’s pretty filled with juvenile “wit.” Every page is adorned with large illustrations, so calling this a true novel is a bit of a stretch. One of the chapters has “Flip-O-Rama” pages so you can animate the boys beating up robots.

Language: Captain Underpants uses “wedgie power”. Mr. Krupp “hates” George and Harold. The boys use doggy “doo-doo” as a diversion. The word “darn” is also used.

Questionable behaviors: The boys change a sign to say “Pick our Noses”. They also change it to say “Boy our feet smell bad”. In their comic, Captain Underpants flushes a bad guy down a toilet. The boys pull pranks: putting pepper in cheerleaders’ pom-poms, bubble bath in the band instruments, helium in the football, and switching the football team’s Muscle Rub Lotion with itching lotion. Mr. Krupp blackmails the boys into doing what he wants. Dr. Diaper points a “ray gun” at the boys.

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1. Why do you think Mr. Krupp is frustrated with George and Harold a the beginning of the book?
2. Pranks may sound funny, but who was upset about the pranks? Why?
3. George and Harold like to make comics together. If you made a comic, who would yours be about?