Captain Underpants

buttmunch · July 14th, 2006, 11:38 AM

Anyone read this one with thier kids? My 7-year-old just started reading the first one and can't stop. Stays up late and argues about wanting to read another chapter. Tra la laaaa! Another book lover is born!

twitchy · July 14th, 2006, 02:35 PM

LOVE Captain Underpants and Super Diaper baby and Dogzilla and Cat Kong and Dav Pilkey's books in general. Harold and George get into such delightful mischief.

There was a page of flip-o-rama instructions in the first Super Diaper Baby book that said, "You know, since nobody reads these pages, we figured they'd be a good place to insert subliminal messages" It then urges kids to think for themselves, boycott standardized testing, read banned books and so on. Awesome!

Although my kids are older and have moved beyond these as far as reading level goes, they still enjoy them for their humour. I recently got my seven year old nephew hooked on them too.

Algernon · July 14th, 2006, 02:49 PM

Yeah, my 7-year-old is way into them. At the beginning of first grade I was stuck reading them to him at night, because he wasn't reading fluently enough on his own yet. They are funny, but I will say sometimes difficult to read out loud...somewhat tongue-twistery!!!

I love that publishers are realizing that this sort of thing is VERY appealling to young boys. I've seen so many books the past few years that really grab and keep the attention of otherwise not-interested readers.

stylejunkiex · July 14th, 2006, 04:06 PM

I love these books.
I used to read them to my little brother and I would so into the story that I would read ahead and completely forget the fact that I was reading to him.
I remember the principal would always call Harold and George "bub". That always made me chuckle for some reason.

buttmunch · July 15th, 2006, 08:07 AM

I was looking online for which one was the next in the series, since my kid is almost done with this one. I ran into alot of reviews that had parents and teachers moaning that these books were promoting anti-social behavior and it's too bad kids weren't reading 'good' books. What a load of horse shit, eh? Let 'em read 'literature' and they'll get all sorts of subversive ideas. Crime and Punishment anyone? Luckily, librarians are saying that the parents and teachers are nuts and anything that gets a kid to stick his head in a book for a few hours is a good thing indeed.

twitchy · July 15th, 2006, 09:48 AM

If anything, it allows kids to indulge in the anti-social behaviour vicariously. I think that half the fun is watching George and Harold doing things that you just know you couldn't do for fear of the consequences. These are good books. They're filled with wit and irony AND underwear jokes! For what more could you ask?

buttmunch · July 15th, 2006, 12:32 PM

I'm with you twitchy. Nothing like a good underwear joke to end my day properly.

Mel1973 · August 15th, 2006, 12:23 PM

I'm with the both of you! My kiddo loves these books and frankly I love that he loves to read ... anything. I have a nephew who refuses to read anything and given the choice of illiterate and enjoying comedic writing.. it's really not a difficult choice. Not that this is all my son reads. he's also a big fan of his Adventure Bible. Teachers bitch about the kids not knowing how to read and then they bitch about what they do read. The past two years (1st and 2nd grade) my son's teachers have prepared books at the end of the year with statements about him by them and statements about the teachers by him. Both teachers main comments about him involved his love of reading and how they would miss telling him to put his library books away and focus on the math or science.
I'm glad that his teachers encourage and nurture his love of reading as much as I do.