Intellectual activity

Date: 18 April 2008 21:45:36

I managed to finish my 3rd book of the year yesterday. About half an hour after I started it, but every little counts!

I am currently reading a book for my book group which is OK, but has this sense of impending doom pervading it, and it occurred to me that the last few books I have read (including the two I didn't manage to finish because of time pressures) were all quite doom-laden and depressing and harrowing even if they had their uplifting moments. And I was tired and wanted to read something silly and cheerful for a change, so I went back to my bookcase and pulled out ......... wait for it .......

"Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants" by Dav Pilkey.

I've reviewed a couple of other Captain Underpants books on this blog before (might even have been while I was still in London, so donkeys years ago), but hadn't read this particular masterpiece. I was reading it in bed and poor HD was very bemused as I kept snorting and giggling, and once I got to the Flip-O-Rama chapter I think he'd finally thought I'd gone doolally (I know, what took him so long?). These books are just hysterical - I originally discovered them when I was looking for a birthday present for my godson, who really likes reading. I remember going to WH Smith in Lewisham and looking at the books for boys age 5-8, and saw a selection of Captain Underpants books, and wondered what they were like. I started flicking through one of them, to see if it was suitable and if I thought he would like it, and ended up laughing so much in the shop that as well as buying them for him (and later for my younger godson as well - they both love them) I bought the whole lot for myself as well.

The basic premise is that there are these two kids, George and Harold, who tend to get into trouble a lot at school. They create an imaginary cartoon superhero, Captain Underpants, but accidentally end up turning the bad-tempered school principal Mr Krupp into a real-life Captain Underpants. He turns into the Y-fronted caped crusader every time he hears someone snap their fingers, and is returned to normality by having water squirted at him. As you can imagine, they all have lots of chaotic adventures, and I think what I love most about the books is the silly humour - there's a lot of stuff that will probably go over kids' heads but adults will appreciate it, and yet they are brilliant children's books.

The evil adversary in this particular tale is George and Harold's science teacher Professor Pippy P. Poopypants, who is sent over the edge after everybody laughs at his name just one time too many. Professor Poopypants is an inventor, and has two inventions, one which shrinks everything down to miniscule size and the other which enlarges everything to massive size. The original intention was to shrink the world's rubbish and increase the food, but the inventions are turned to evil use and it is only Captain Underpants who can save the day (I don't think I'm giving away too much of the plot to say that he wins ultimately, of course!).

Part of Professor Poopypants' evil plot is to force everyone to change their name to something equally silly. Applying his naming system, my own name (had he been successful in his quest to take over the world) would have been the marvellous Poopsie Pottytushie.

It's very subtle humour, as you can tell.