Rating: ★★★★★
If I could go back in time to when I was in elementary school, I would slap some sense into my younger self and tell him to read this book because it is absolutely hilarious, ridiculous, and it deals with a superhero nonetheless. Dav Pilkey is brilliant at crafting this book for kids of all ages and clever enough that it feels like you are reading a graphic novel instead of an actual book. I do not understand why this book is constantly being challenged or banned in public schools because the ridiculousness of it all is apparent enough for a child to understand that they shouldn’t cause havoc and disruption in school.
We are introduced to George Beard and Harold Hutchins who are best friends and the class clowns at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. In their spare time when they are not pulling practical jokes, George and Harold love creating comic books and one in particular called Captain Underpants is their all-time favorite superhero. When they finish writing a new issue, they sneak into the main office making photocopies of the comic and then sell it to their fellow peers for 50 cents. Their principal, Principal Krupp despises children, laughter, and most of all George and Harold with their stupid comic book and decides it is his life mission to put an end to these little twerps.
Principal Krupp succeeds in his pursuit when he caught on film the two tricksters pulling a practical stunt on the football team and uses the footage for blackmail against George and Harold. After a few days of performing chores for Krupp, George and Harold sees an ad in the paper for this special hypnotic ring and uses it to hypnotize Principal Krupp to retrieve the tape and make him forget about the whole dilemma. For the most part they accomplish that task but George and Harold tells Krupp to become Captain Underpants and he decides to leave school and pursue justice for all. Now George and Harold are following him, making sure he doesn’t get killed, and they want to avoid getting into anymore trouble.
The entire story is extremely whimsical and I love the illustrations. I believe having this book in color makes the whole experience captivating because I am not a big fan of illustrations in black and white. I can tolerate it when it comes to Mangas because I have no choice but when it deals with children books they have to be in color. The colors make the story pop out and dealing with Captain Underpants, it makes the adventure mind-blowing as he tries to save the day and the boys trying to save him from harm.
I believe this book is perfect for kids who do not like to read because it doesn’t feel like you are reading at all during the whole time. I tend to have a habit of counting how many pages I read regardless if I love or hate a book and with this children’s book I lost count of the time and when I looked down I was already 80 pages into the book so I can just imagine a kid picking up this book thinking it is a comic and wanting more adventures of George and Harold by the time its over.Do I want read more Captain Underpants after finishing this novel? HELL YES. Overall this series is fun and a quick refreshment after a long day or when I want to read a book that doesn’t require much just an open mind and a sense of humor.
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