Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot

June 15, 2015
Pranksters George and Harold face the deadliest challenge of their checkered careers: a supersmart, superstrong gym teacher. With the avowed aim of enticing an audience of "grouchy old people" to the Waistband Warrior's latest exploit, Pilkey promises "references to health care, gardening, Bob Evans restaurants, hard candies, FOX News, and gentle-yet-effective laxatives." He delivers, too. But lest fans of the Hanes-clad hero fret, he also stirs in plenty of fart jokes, brain-melting puns, and Flip-O-Rama throwdowns. After a meteorite transforms Mr. Meaner into a mad genius (evil, of course, because "as everyone knows, most gym teachers are inherently evil") and he concocts a brown gas that turns children into blindly obedient homework machines, George and Harold travel into the future to enlist aid from their presumably immune adult selves. Temporarily leaving mates and children (of diverse sexes, both) behind, Old George and Old Harold come to the rescue. But Meaner has a robot suit (of course he has a robot suit), and he not only beats down the oldsters, but is only fazed for a moment when Capt. Underpants himself comes to deliver a kick to the crotch. Fortunately, gym teachers, "like toddlers," will put anything in their mouths-so an ingestion of soda pop and Mentos at last spells doom, or more accurately: "CHeffGoal-D'BLOOOM!" Another epic outing in a graphic hybrid series that continues not just to push the envelope, but tear it to shreds. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-10)

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August 1, 2015

Gr 2-4-George and Harold, and their doubles, Yesterday George and Yesterday Harold, have a good thing going. Two of them go to school while the other two hide in the tree house and play video games all day-then they switch. But when their malicious gym teacher, Mr. Meaner, creates a method of mind control that turns their fellow students into attentive, obedient, perfect children, the future of all humanity is in the boys' hands. The catastrophe is resolved when the boys travel into the future and seek the help of their adult selves. This latest installment features several "flip-o-rama" pages that allow readers to flip quickly back and forth to create an animated effect. Like the other books in this series, the title is a combination of comic book sequences, deeply silly plotlines, and prank-filled humor. The text continues to make fun of teachers, parents, and the elderly. VERDICT When Captain Underpants first arrived on shelves in 1997, there were few books like it. Now, with fun and funny chapter books series like Megan McDonald's "Stink" (Candlewick), Dan Greenburg's "The Zack Files" (Grosset & Dunlap), and the comic-style adventures of "Geronimo Stilton" (Scholastic), the potty-mouthed caped crusader has competition. Die-hard fans, however, will likely be excited to see this 12th installment.-Paula Huddy, The Blake School-Highcroft Campus, Wayzata, MN

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015
Grades 3-5 The series' twelfth entry finds pals George and Haroldand their duplicates, Yesterday George and Yesterday Haroldhappily taking turns attending school and playing hooky. All's well until gym teacher Mr. Meaner ingests some Zygo-Gogozizzle 24, turns into a superintelligent supervillain, and builds a machine to transform students, including Yesterday George and Yesterday Harold, into model, rule-following children. To stop Mr. Meaner's dastardly plan for global domination, George and Harold must time travel to enlist help from their future, grown-up selves as well as from Captain Underpants (whose own powers may have been compromised) and the Hamsterdactyls. Featuring characteristically wacky and over-the-top escapades, puns, potty humor, snarky-narrator commentary (including a jab at critics of the series' language, vowing to please Grumpy Old People the GOPby including topics of interest especially for them. . . . Bob Evans Restaurants, hard candies, FOX News, and gentle-yet-effective laxatives ), abundant cartoon depictions and comics, Flip-O-Ramas, and previous title references, this will prove popular with series fans.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The insane popularity of Pilkey's Captain Underpants series hasn't ebbed with time. A new title will send droves of kids to the shelves, so stock up!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)