A boisterous balance of potty humor and geek pride in this rollicking young engineer’s adventure, the first of two.
A gang of science nerds unwittingly unleashes a squadron of destructive robots and must engineer a way to save the town in Lerner’s debut novel.
When a mysterious box appears outside Kennedy’s house, he enlists the help of best friend and fellow EngiNerd Dan to sift through the metal parts and hardware. Together, they piece together a polite but ravenous robot named Greeeg. The robot eats all the food in the house—refusing only radishes—and Kennedy discovers that Greeeg is both insatiable and unmanageable. The potential for catastrophe is fully realized when Greeeg propulsively “disposes” (that’s robot defecation) tiny, window-shattering, brown-black cubes. Is the robot from Grandpa K., Kennedy’s hero and a former engineer? Is it coincidence that his best friend also hates radishes? Unfortunately, Kennedy isn’t the only one with a robot problem. Eighteen bullet-farting robots storm town, and the EngiNerds must band together and use ingenuity to prevent the robots from consuming and destroying everything in their wake. Sci-fi readers will enjoy the science and tinkering, but dangerous excreta is pure schoolboy horseplay. The story includes clever duct-tape solutions, the construction of catapults from disposable chopsticks, and a good, old-fashioned water fight in this action-packed celebration of nerd culture. The absence of ethnic markers implies that Kennedy is white, but the surnames of the EngiNerds suggest a diverse assemblage.
A boisterous balance of potty humor and geek pride in this rollicking young engineer’s adventure, the first of two. (Science fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6872-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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
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
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