Captain Underpants

About the Captain Underpants series

Fourth-graders George Beard and Harold Hutchins are the class prankster duo and comic-book creators of their own hero, Captain Underpants -- so when they hypnotize their tyrannical principal, Mr. Krupp, into actually believing he is Captain Underpants, chaos (and a very literal superhero in tighty-whities) is unleashed on their school. Each book pits the accidentally-real Captain Underpants against an increasingly absurd villain -- alien cafeteria ladies, a mutant plant-fertilizer monster, a time-traveling toilet army -- with George and Harold's comics-within-the-book (drawn in their own kid-scrawl "Flip-O-Rama" style) acting out the wildest fight scenes.

Dav Pilkey wrote the series in part from his own experience as a kid labeled disruptive and learning-disabled, and it shows: the humor is proudly, unapologetically juvenile (bathroom jokes are a design feature, not a bug), the reading level is forgiving, and the message underneath the mayhem is that funny, restless kids are not the problem the adults around them think they are. It became one of the most challenged book series in American libraries for its irreverence toward authority -- and one of the most beloved for exactly the same reason.

Captain Underpants was Pilkey's breakout hit before he moved on to Dog Man, and it remains a reliable favorite for turning reluctant young readers into eager ones.

How to read this series

Read the twelve main novels in publication order, starting with The Adventures of Captain Underpants (1997). The overarching gag -- Mr. Krupp's dual identity, George and Harold's escalating inventions, and a handful of running villains -- pays off better in sequence, though each book's central plot is fully self-contained. Note that Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy was published in two parts (both released in 1997/2003) that together form one story; read Part 1 immediately before Part 2.

Two spin-off graphic novels drawn "by George and Harold" -- The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby and The Adventures of Ook and Gluk -- are fun extras but not required reading. After the main series, Pilkey's other work starring the same two boys continues in Dog Man.