Book Summary: The Adventures of Captain Underpants is a rather silly story of a pair of 4th graders who illustrate/write comics when they aren’t pulling pranks. Their principle hates them, and after recording them pranking almost the whole school at the big football game he blackmails them into being good and doing chores for him.
Their brilliant plan to get out of this is to buy a hypno-ring and get the video away from him. Only, in the process, they make him think he is their superhero creation Captain Underpants. Before they can undo the hypnosis he runs off to foil actual crimes, and the pair follow to try to keep themselves from getting into more trouble.
Impressions: I honestly don’t get why this book is so often challenged/banned. Sure the humor is juvenile… but it is a juvenile book. The most offensive thing in it is a bit of potty humor. Maybe an argument could be made that the prank prone duo are bad role models, but that is rather weak given it is supposed to be comedy not serious.
Professional Review: From Publishers Weekly (2017)
Few things command disrespect like the sight of a man wearing whitie-tighties. However, the bald and barefoot Captain Underpants happens to be a superhero. As one character notes, ""Most superheroes look like they're flying around in their underwear....Well, this guy actually is flying around in his underwear!"" The Captain, defender of ""Truth, Justice, and all that is Pre-Shrunk and Cottony,"" is the comic-book invention of two troublemaking fourth-graders, George and Harold. He comes to life after the boys use a mail-order device to hypnotize their diabolical school principal, who sheds his outergarments and battles crime in only a cape and Y-fronts. As his creators try to snap him out of the trance, Captain Underpants threatens bank robbers with ""Wedgie Power"" and foils the villainous Dr. Diaper ("" `You know,' said George, `up until now this story was almost believable' ""). Pilkey (Dog Breath) uses a sitcom-like formula to set up the rivalry between the boys and the principal, and to strip the authority figure of dignity. After a tepid exposition, he falls back on the notion that undies and mild bathroom humor are funny in themselves-- and, given his intended audience, he's probably right. Line drawings of the slapstick action appear on every page, and ""Flip-O-Rama"" climactic sequences create an agreeably corny ""motion-picture"" effect. But the lowbrow jokes (the Captain uses an elastic waistband to apprehend an evildoer) chiefly constitute this tale's harmless, non-gross appeal. Ages 8-12.
Library Uses: The obvious use here would be as part of a discussion about why books get banned, and how we as librarians react to attempts at censorship. It could actually also be used as in a program about bullying, with focus being on the other kids reactions to the string of pranks the kids pull in the first part of the book.
Readalikes: Some similar books are almost too obvious – the Fantastic Fart Brothers Save the World! Comes to mind, along with other intentionally gross-out funny books. Trapped in a Video Game could be a good choice as well, the humor is different but it fits in that same area of books that specifically appeal to boys. For some kids who like Captain Underpants I might recommend Axe Cop, which is a graphic novel series written by a (then) five-year old and drawn by his older brother. Despite being written by a very young boy the level of violence in the graphic novels could be too much for the youngest readers of Captain Underpants.
References
Pilkey, D. (1997). The Adventures of Captain Underpants. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.
Publishers Weekly. (2017). The Adventures of Captain Underpants. [Review of the book The Adventures of Captain Underpants]. PWxyz, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-590-84627-1
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