The Barnes & Noble Review
George Beard and Harold Hutchins, the kids who invented the sartorially challenged superhero known as Captain Underpants, are back again with another action-packed adventure. The boys are in trouble again, and this time, mean old Principal Krupp's punishment is a 100-page essay on good citizenship. To make matters worse, Krupp has forbidden the boys to write about their favorite topic -- Captain Underpants -- so the boys decide to create a new hero instead.
In the boys' latest adventure story, the evil villain Deputy Dangerous and his sidekick, Danger Dog, create an invention that captures Captain Underpants, sucks away his super powers, and turns them into a potion that Dangerous plans to drink. Danger Dog gets a few swallows of the potion, but before Dangerous gets his share, the police show up. Taking advantage of Danger Dog's newly acquired ability to fly, Dangerous manages to escape. But as he flies by a local hospital still carrying his beaker of super-power potion, an overzealous butt slap from a doctor sends a newly delivered baby flying out a window and into the beaker. The infant drinks up all of the solution, thereby acquiring amazing new powers that turn him into the newest, weirdest superhero ever: Super Diaper Baby.
Deputy Dangerous is nothing if not determined, and soon he invents the Danger Crib 2000, an innocent-looking device that he hopes will transfer Super Diaper Baby's powers back to him. But things go amusingly awry, and suddenly Dangerous finds himself having a very crappy day -- in the most dreaded sense of the word. What follows is the bathroom battle of the ages, including flying hunks of giant poo, huge rolls of toilet paper, and, of course, the planet Uranus.
Fans of the previous books in this silly series won't be disappointed. All the requisite trademarks are there: lots of potty humor, a few sly parental jokes, plenty of slapstick action, and page after page of Flip-O-Rama fun. And not only does the comic book structure in this newest issue make for great eye candy -- Super Diaper Baby is every bit as giggle-producing as his predecessor. (Beth Amos)
Familiar faces and familiar themes reappear in Pilkey's newest addition to the Captain Underpants family. George Beard and Harold Hutchins, the merry pranksters of his wildly popular series, are back, this time as authors of a "graphic novel." Punished by their principal, Mr. Krupp, the boys are sentenced to write a 100-page essay on "Good Citizenship." Of course, that doesn't happen. The story of Super Diaper Baby is their not-so-contrite response to the punishment. There is plenty to be offended by in this truly "graphic" work. Adults and children who can spell well will surely be distracted and occasionally confused by the plethora of misspelled words and missing punctuation marks. The bad guy being turned into a giant "piece of poo" and many more visual and written references to human excrement will revolt grownups and embarrass some members of the intended audience. When Diaper Dog reassures the newly transformed Deputy Dangerous that it could be worse, "you could have been turned into diareah [sic]," most adults will consider closing the covers and turning to more serious fare. But most children get a delicious thrill from reading forbidden and naughty things, and Pilkey has filled this niche for the emergent reader. Silly puns abound. Scatological humor is the order of the day, crowned with a toilet-paper-wrapped Deputy Doo-Doo being delivered to, you guessed it, Uranus. Adults will want to use this book as a birdcage liner, and young readers with elementary senses of humor will revel in the humor and silliness. Some readers might feel encouraged to design their own comic books. More sophisticated readers will better appreciate the forbidden humor of Roald Dahl. (Fiction. 6-10)
