Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 3^-5, younger and older for reading aloud. Pilkey keeps his promise (or threat) to continue the adventures of George, Harold, and their split-personality principal, Mr. Krupp. Using school brainiac Melvin Sneedly's science project, a specially modified copy machine, to reproduce their latest homemade comic book, George and Harold inadvertently create an army of teacher-eating toilets led by evil supercommode Turbo Toilet 2000. Enter Captain Underpants, Krupp's briefs-clad alter ego, "faster than a speeding waistband . . . more powerful than boxer shorts," able to lay the attackers low with generous glops of school lunch--but not even Wedgie Power can stop the menacing meisterjohn. What to do? It's back to the copier for a new superhero, the Incredible Robo-Plunger. One climactic battle later, the triumphant lads send all their creations off to Uranus, and kick back to enjoy their reward: a gig as Principals for a Day. Destined to be at least as popular as the first book, this, too, is profusely illustrated with black-and-white cartoon art, including actual pages of the lads' comics, and two chapters done in back-and-forth Flip-o-Rama, "the world famous cheesy animation technique." 'Nuff said. --John Peters
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this worthy sequel to The Adventures of Captain Underpants, Pilkey maintains the original's satiric, self-referential formula as he revisits fourth-grade pranksters Harold and George, along with their school principal and principle nemesis, Mr. Krupp (aka superhero Captain Underpants). Trouble begins when Harold and George sabotage a science fair and are punished with "The Invention Convention Detention." Bored, the boys collaborate on a comic book about Talking Toilets. To their surprise, the Toilets come to life and Mr. Krupp's alter ego is called into service. Worst of all, even the brave Captain Underpants may be no match for the Toilets' leader, "nearly a ton of twisting steel and raging porcelain" known as the TT 2000. Pilkey illustrates in uncomplicated black-and-white line drawings with washes of gray, and offers "Flip-O-RamaTM," which requires turning a page back and forth for low-low-budget animation ("Don't forget to add your own sound-effects!"). He promises "extremely graphic violence" in scenes of "a giant toilet getting its shiny hiney kicked," ridicules teachers named "Ms. Ribble" and "Miss Anthrope" and decides that the story just wouldn't be complete without "upchucking." Bart Simpson could learn a few things from the subversively hilarious Harold and George, who consider inventing a robot urinal ("The Urinator"), then decide, "They'll never let us get away with that in a children's book. We're skating on thin ice as it is!" Ages 7-10. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6This epic novel opens with an introductory cartoon strip that tells the top-secret truth about how two kids, George and Harold, used the 3-D Hypno-Ring to hypnotize their principal, who now becomes Captain Underpants whenever he hears fingers snaping. In this second adventure, the boys are banned from attending the annual Invention Convention and sent to detention to keep them out of trouble. This, of course, is impossible, so they sneak into the school that evening and tamper with all of the inventions to wreak havoc. They also make copies of their newest comic strip of vicious attack toilets and the daddy monster of them allTurbo Toilet 2000. The copy machine is an invention that duplicates into live matter all images it copies and the attack toilets come to life. The wild story actually comes to a logical conclusion, but it really doesnt matter. The fun is in the reading, which is full of puns, rhymes, and nonsense along with enough revenge and wish fulfillment for every downtrodden fun-seeking kid who never wanted to read a book. The cartoon drawings and the amazing flip-o-rama pages make this book so appealing that youngsters wont notice that their vocabulary is stretching. Hooray for Captain Underpants! Watch him fly off your shelves.Marlene Gawron, Orange County Library, Orlando, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
While in detention, class cut-ups George and Harold create another comic book featuring their principal, a.k.a. Captain Underpants. An experimental copy machine brings their comic to life, resulting in a phalanx of marauding toilets that can only be stopped by--Captain Underpants! Part graphic novel, part tongue-in-cheek parody, this sequel may not be quite as fresh as [cf2]The Adventures of Captain Underpants[cf1], but it's still very hip and funny. From HORN BOOK Fall 1999, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
