Captain Underpants

I have been reading the Captain Underpants series of books to Rodney and David. They are written by Dav Pilkey. Captain Underpants is a series of children's books about two 4th graders, George and Harold, and their mean old principal Mr. Krupp. In their spare time, George and Harold write comic books about a superhero they made up which they called Captain Underpants, hence the title of the book. This character is named after his clothing habit of wearing only a red cape with black polka-dots and a pair of white briefs. Their cartoon character is unexpectedly brought to life when George and Harold jokingly hypnotize Mr. Krupp to act like Captain Underpants. To their consternation, from then on whenever somebody snaps their fingers Mr. Krupp, with a call of Tra-la-laaaaaa, transforms into Captain Underpants, and then turns back if water is poured over his head. It all gets even sillier from there.

These potty-mouthed books are considered very clever and funny by their target audience, (young boys) and even “some of their parents”. The books are the 2nd most popular children’s book series right behind Harry Potter. We have read just about all of the books and the boys love them. I just got the 8th book, Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People, for the boys. The boys really loved it!

In the new book of the greatest chapters in the book talk about the problem with parents. First it tells of how we “teach our kids to walk and talk for the 1st two years and spend the next 16 years telling them to sit down and be quiet.” Then the book goes on to say we “teach our kid how to use the bathroom, say things like pee-pee and poop-poop, and give them rewords for a good job. Then we forbid them every to talk about the bathroom ever again once they are potty trained.” This was more for the parents who are reading the book then the kids. The joke was a little over the boy’s head. But it is all part of the fun. So I say Tra-la-laaaaaa