The twelfth installment of the Underpants series, Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot, in which our hero battles the evil, mind-controlling gym teacher Mr. Meaner, comes out on August 25. It’s surprising, simple, and wholly enjoyable. It might not be the best book or the funniest book in the series, but that’s OK, because as it turns out, Stinks-A-Lot is a very important Underpants book. That’s because it’s probably the last one.
Captain Underpants buried a sneaky story underneath all of the slapstick and wordplay. At the series’ core, our two heroes, George and Harold, were just two young boys determined to be kids. They stuck it to all the supervillain adults, they rode their skateboards, they switched the signs around, and they howled and laughed through all dozen adventures. They never matured or evolved or grew up, and while critics might argue that’s bad writing, these books were never for those snobs anyway. These books were fun above everything else, and that was precisely what made them great. Captain Underpants made me laugh and hoot and holler with my friends way back in grade school, and they do the same now. The series was a prime example of reading that made you want to read more.
