[BOOK REVIEW] The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

Title:  The Adventures of Captain Underpants

Author:  Dav Pilkey

Genre:  Superheroes / Humor / School 

Year Published: 1997

Year Read:  2010

Publisher:  The Blue Sky Press

Series: Captain Underpants #1    

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 5+ (Some Crude Humor)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

Here comes that valiant hero, CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS!  “The Adventures of Captain Underpants” is a popular children’s book from the creative mind of Dav Pilkey and it is about the hilarious adventures of George and Harold as they try to trick their strict principal Mr. Krupp, but their trick ends up backfiring on them!  “The Adventures of Captain Underpants” is absolutely one of the funniest books ever created!!!

“Tra-la-laaa!”

Man, I am going to be saying that throughout this review!  Dav Pilkey has done a great job with both the illustrations and writing this book as they make this book full of pure hilarity and adventure!  I love the way that Dav Pilkey writes this book in a sarcastic and humorous way as George and Harold are shown to be the greatest practical jokers in the history of all practical jokers as they are constantly pulling pranks on the school and somehow succeeding in their jokes.  I really enjoyed the sarcastic humor in this book as it is smart and witty and it strongly reminded me of the humor in “The Stinky Cheeseman” as it plays a satire on the world of superheroes, except this time there is a superhero that runs around the city in his underwear!  One of the most impressive characters in this book is Captain Underpants himself as he saves the world but saves it in his underwear!  Captain Underpants sort of remind me of Quailman from the Nickelodeon show “Doug” as both characters saves the word in their underwear.

Dav Pilkey’s illustrations are truly hilarious and childish in this book as George and Harold always have mischievous looks on their faces. George is drawn as a child with a tie and a black flat top hair and Harold is drawn to have puffy hair, which makes the two characters look hilarious to children.  The illustration that stood out the most for me was the illustration of Captain Underpants himself as he has a bald head and is shown wearing a red cape and is mostly shown in his underwear!  Also, I like to point out that the illustrations are in black and white; however Dav Pilkey’s illustrations are so hilarious and childish that many children will overlook the black and white coloring.

Parents should know that this book was banned in many schools because it was considered insensitive and encourages children to disobey authority (I did not really understand the insensitivity part, but I did understand the part about disobeying authority).  The main thing that parents should be concerned about is the crude humor in this book such as Harold and George using a fake doggy doo-doo to trick a villain and the cheerleaders being described as having mucus running down their noses after they were exposed to the pepper in their pom-poms and parents who do not approve of crude humor might want to wait until their children get older to enjoy this book.  As for the banning, I honestly do not believe in banning books and I thought that this was an enjoyable book for children of all ages, but it was not meant to be an educational book. I think that if the content in this book is really offensive for educational classes, then teachers could use this book as a special treat for children to read if children did some good deeds or did their schoolwork, sort of like a reward for their efforts.

“The Adventures of Captain Underpants” is truly a book that children of all ages can enjoy as it has great humor and spectacular characters and I think this book will be wonderful for children who love reading about superheroes and great humor!  I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the crude humor might be a bit too inappropriate for smaller children.

“Tra-la-laa! Captain Underpants away!”

* 2000 Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award for Grades K-3

You might also like:

• Dog Breath: The Horrible Trouble with Hally Tosis by Dav Pilkey

• The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! by Jon Scieszka

• The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka

 REASON FOR BEING BANNED: For having offensive language and being unsuited for the age group.

[BOOK REVIEW] Dog Breath: The Horrible Trouble with Hally Tosis by Dav Pilkey

Title:  Dog Breath:  The Horrible Trouble with Hally Tosis

Author:  Dav Pilkey

Genre: Animals / Pets / Habits

Year Published: 1994

Year Read:  2014

Publisher: The Blue Sky Press

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 4+ (Some Gross Humor)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

After reading the breakthrough children’s book hit “Walter the Farting Dog,” I wanted to check out more children’s books about dogs who have problems that cause them to smell and I stumbled upon this little unique book called “Dog Breath: The Horrible Trouble with Hally Tosis” by Dav Pilkey!

Hally Tosis was a cute little dog who lived with the Tosis family and was extremely friendly towards everyone.  But, she had one little problem…

SHE HAS REALLY BAD BREATH!

Everywhere that Hally Tosis goes; her bad breath would knock everyone off their feet including the Tosis family’s Grandmother Tosis!  So when Hally Tosis’ bad breath becomes too unbearable for the family, the Tosis family decided to give away Hally, even though the children were upset about this.  So in a last attempt to save Hally, the Tosis children tried to help Hally get rid of her horrible breath through various methods including taking her to a movie that would literally take her breath away.  But, all of these methods ended up failing and the children were forced to say good-bye to Hally. But one night, two robbers ended up breaking into the Tosis family’s house and…

Can Hally Tosis save the day?

Read this book to find out!

I have read many books by Dav Pilkey, including his famous “Captain Underpants” series, but “Dog Breath” was probably one of the most unique books I had ever read by him!  Dav Pilkey’s writing was cute and hilarious as it details Hally’s unfortunate problem with her bad breath and how it affects those around her.  I loved the way that Dav Pilkey made Hally into such a friendly dog who is unaware of how bad her breath is and she is always shown to be cheerful and blissful, despite the fact that her bad breath causes people to either run away from her or be knocked out unconscious.  I also loved the fact that the Tosis family really does care about Hally, despite them being put off by Hally’s bad breath and it really shows during the scene where the Tosis family is forced to find a new home for Hally and they are crying when they are putting up the “free dog” sign.  Dav Pilkey’s artwork is cute and colorful to look at, especially the image of Hally herself as she is shown to be an extremely cute dog who has a big smile on her face despite her bad breath giving everyone grief.  I also loved the way that Dav Pilkey shows Hally’s bad breath as it is shown as a green smoke coming out of her mouth and the images of various people being knocked out by her bad breath is hilarious to see!

The reason why I gave this book a four star rating was because compared to “Walter the Farting Dog,” I felt that some parts of this book were a bit bland in the storytelling.  I actually wished that there were more dimensions to the Tosis family as they barely have any dialogue (save for the scene where the parents decided to do something about Hally) and I wanted to see the Tosis family deal with Hally’s bad breath in a more intriguing way.  Also, it might be because I already read a book that was similar to this premise and had a more interesting way of dealing with a dog’s smelly problem (Walter the Farting Dog).

Overall, “Dog Breath: The Horrible Trouble with Hally Tosis” is a really cute book about how a family tries to accept their dog’s unconventional problem and how that problem could be used more resourcefully than they thought.  I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book (unless the idea about a dog having smelly breath seems gross to some)!