Wildly funny.
In this sequel to My Brother is a Superhero (2015), it’s up to totally ordinary 11-year-old Luke to save the planet.
When Zorbon the Decider handed out superpowers in the last book, the white boy was taking a bathroom break, so his brother became Star Guy, and then his Asian-American friend, Lara Lee, became Dark Flutter (who can command small, cute animals). Luke’s been left out twice. When his mom takes away his Xbox, Luke resorts to visiting the comic-book store that had been run by the previous book’s villain, who swears he’s now on the side of good. Luke decides to count on that pledge when he’s transported to an enormous spaceship and learns that extraterrestrials who run a continuous reality show intend their next episode to be the destruction of Earth. Possibly even worse, they’ve all taken on the appearance of his gym teacher, Miss Dunham. However, Luke’s real problem is that he has discovered a weakness in Star Guy’s defenses, but Star Guy won’t listen to him. Can Luke figure out how to save Earth with only his wits? Solomons never lets up on the humor; readers will laugh out loud, as the book uses every superhero cliché imaginable. In a slightly meta and very funny turn, Luke takes advantage of them: his encyclopedic knowledge of comic books gives him a strategic edge over the ETs.
Wildly funny. (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: July 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-47494-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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