Something Epic Is Coming…

That title was not a tease. Something epic really is coming out.

Captain Underpants and the - Extra Crunchy Book of Fun Two

SJ squealed when he got Captain Underpants and the Extra Crunchy Book of Fun Two

And it is going to rock the MMK world.

A hotly anticipated novel is due out. You can bet we at MMK will preorder. (Well, actually Ms. MMK to be specific. She’s the online shopper of the house.)

No, it’s not the follow-up to 50 Shades of Grey.  No, Harry Potter is not returning.  And there is no The Firm Part II.

The novel I am talking about is the Captain Underpants 11th Epic Novel by Dav Pilkey. While Captain Underpants is not high-brow literature, it is loved in my household!!

As I’ve mentioned before (My Children Are Readers), SJ can not get enough of Captain Underpants. BR, while not the fan he once was, still will pick up Captain Underpants book on occasion.

The Captain Underpants books have turned SJ into a voracious reader.  Every night – when he should already be sleeping and morning when he still should be sleeping – you can find him with the blanket pulled over his head reading through a book from the Captain Underpants series.

Every week he and I create a Captain Underpants story as part of his vocabulary homework. He also made a couple of comic books himself. His teacher stopped him when he wanted to write “SJ-MAN and the Attack of The Lunch Ladies.”

Some of you may not be familiar with Captain Underpants ie those who don’t have a child between 5 and 9 (or an older child who read it when he/she was that age).  Seriously, it seems that just about every child in that age group reads and loves Captain Underpants and is breathlessly awaiting the 11th epic novel.

Don’t believe me? Go ahead and Google Captain Underpants 11th Epic Novel. Or better yet Google Captain Underpants 11th Epic Novel release date. This turned up about 49,900 results in 0.29 seconds.

After sifting through a few of those 49,900 results for the Captain Underpants 11th Epic Novel, the clearest site noted Summer of 2014 as the release date.

Anyway, the basic premise of Captain Underpants, a graphic novel is that there are two fourth grade boys named George and Harold who write comic books and love to pull pranks. Mr. Krupp, their mean principal, wants to get the boys in trouble. However, the boys are able to use a 3-D Hypno-Ring and hypnotize Krupp, turning him into Captain Underpants, their own superhero creation.

As you may have guessed from the title, Captain Underpants makes a lot of use of bathroom humor. Some may be turned off by this humor and the book has actually been banned in some places. My mother, for instance, who loves reading with SJ does not care for these books.

Me – I’m just fine with the Captain Underpants series. Besides, what little boy (and plenty of girls too) does not laugh at the mere mention of the word fart, poop, or toilet?

So SJ along with millions of other Captain Underpants fans will have to wait for the 11th epic novel.  Hey, this might teach SJ patience.

Even my mother would love that.

Here is an SJ creation (I helped a little). The underlined words were his weekly vocabulary words.

Captain Underpants and The Attack of The Blond Girl Monster

One day George and Harold were fishing at the pond.  A blond haired girl was having her birthday party at a camp near the pond. The blond haired birthday girl caught a fish that bit her and turned her into a monster. The monster smelled George and Harold’s mints and went to attack them.

George and Harold got away, but not before the Monster smashed each boy’s hand. The boys went to a doctor who put splints on each boy’s middle finger. They went to their school and found Mr. Krupp reading by a lamp.

Guess what happened next? I’ll give you a hint.

CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS!!!!!!

Captain Underpants and the boys went to the pond. Captain Underpants had a fight with The Blond Girl Monster. The Blond Girl Monster made a stinky in Captain Underpants and the boys face. But Captain Underpants was still able to defeat The Blond Girl Monster.  He did so by shooting his underwear into The Blond Girl Monster’s mouth which turned it back into a little blond girl.

George and Harold wrote a letter about this adventure. They put a stamp on the envelope and mailed the letter to Dav Pilkey.

9 thoughts on “Something Epic Is Coming…

  1. My boys LOVED Captain Underpants when they were younger. Some critics were vocal against the series saying that it didn’t serve as a good role-model to boys, but I figured, hey, if it gets them reading, that’s a good thing. And they’re kind of fun for the parents to read with them, too!

    • I am 100% with you. It is especially important that it appeals to boys as they are less likely to read.
      Anyway, I don’t take the topic so seriously.

  2. Both my kids loved Captain Underpants. There came a time during that stage that I had to threaten them with no more Captain Underpants if they didn’t cut back on the potty talk. All they talked about were farts, toilets, diapers and poo for months.
    Working in the library the Captain Underpants books were constantly in circulation – they were battered and dog-eared. But we were so happy that the boys (it was mainly boys who were signing them out) were reading it didn’t matter what shape the books were in.
    I hope the book lives up to the boys’ expectations.

    • Cool,
      I do think it’s important that it reaches boys (not only) as some don’t always think it’s cool to read. They don’t engage in reading as much as girls.

  3. Oh yes, Mr. T loved those books! Even wrote his own comic strip of Captain Underpants! I’m glad SJ is looking forward to the book!

  4. THIS was too funny! That look on his face just told the whole story here.

    I’m like the others, Jake went through a stage where all he would read was Captain Underpants. It drove me insane about all the potty talk but at least he was reading something and was excited about books. He would even sneak them into bed like your son and read them with a flashlight when he should be sleeping.

    I did the happy dance the day he discovered Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He dropped the Captain and read all the books in that series until he discovered Percy Jackson. He’s on the second series of Percy Jackson where Percy is in high school. Hopefully, SJ will move in this direction for his reading list too.
    (and yes, I know I owe you an email – I promise, you’re on my list!)

    • I have the same thoughts about Captain Underpants as you. I can deal with the potty talk.
      My older boy has not gotten into Whimpy Kid or Harry Potter. Oh well. Anyway, he just reads baseball, baseball, baseball.

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