Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000 (Book) Review
We liked?
Not so much?
Tra-la-la-laaaaaa! Prolific children’s author Dav Pilkey sets out to delight the younger set with the latest installation in his popular Captain Underpants series, Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000. For the uninitiated, Captain Underpants is an unlikely (and unknowing) hero, who was originally a character in a comic book written […]
Tra-la-la-laaaaaa!
Prolific children’s author Dav Pilkey sets out to delight the younger set with the latest installation in his popular Captain Underpants series, Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000.
For the uninitiated, Captain Underpants is an unlikely (and unknowing) hero, who was originally a character in a comic book written by two young underachievers (at school anyway), named George and Harold. George and Harold narrate each book in the series, which are interspersed the comic books the two boys make and sell on the playground for extra cash. Over the years (and books), Captain Underpants has gained a physical body in the form of George and Harold’s mean principal – who has no idea he is secretly a super hero. It all makes for some pretty wacky adventures that kids absolutely love, and the eleventh book continues in the same tried and true vibe as its predecessors.
In Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000, the boys meet up once more with an old nemesis – the Turbo Toilet 2000. But first, there’s a whole lot of other weird stuff going on, from time travel to body doubles, to another unlikely hero who decides saving the world just isn’t his thing. The story telling follows the same formula that has made the Captain Underpants books so popular in the past. The boys tell the story in their own words, adding in a few comic adventures and a flip-o-rama here and there to keep things fresh. There are plenty of child-like illustrations, and Pilkey both speaks in kids’ language and widens their vocabulary at the same time, with a casual and loquacious style that is uniquely his own.
Current fans of the Captain Underpants series will find more of the same to love with the latest book – and that’s a good thing. It’s a tried and true formula that has been helping instill a love of reading in young kids for a long time, and it works. Newcomers to the underwear sporting hero should have no trouble falling right into George’s and Harold’s troubles and triumphs, and falling in love with the characters along the way.