Okay, I know what some of you might be thinking, but I have to say that my children adored this book. In fact, in the three weeks we've had it my daughter La-La, age 10, has probably read it 3 times, and my 8 year-old son, Dave has probably read it 20 times -- really!
For those of you who know about Captain Underpants, The Adventures of Ook and Gluk contain all of the familiar elements -- with some nice additions. It has Flip-o-rama, for example, and that thing that Pilkey does with the signs. You know, where they read perfectly normally before his characters get a hold of them. But are remarkably silly after they've been blasted.
Before: I drink warm apple juice from the Pitsburg Fruit Juice Company.
After: I drink arm Pit Juice.
The additions are bad spelling and more of a plot, with an actual moral or two. Honest, there's this whole environmental aspect to the tale. And a bit of clever plotting that involves time travel and 'relative perspective'.
The bad spelling, by the way, is there because this book is supposed to have been written by George and Harold (Beard and Hutchins) from the Captain Underpants series. And since they're not the sharpest students you get: oposites, surfise, philosofy and other travesties.
Oh, and there's also 'cave talk':
Lesson #1
I like Candy = me like candy
Lesson #3
My grandmother doesn't think this book belongs in the school library = Grandma no fun
THE SKINNY:::
No doubt, there are adults who don't admire the Pilkey books, but I love them. They are silly, with gross, juvenile humor which is precisely why libraries can't keep them on the shelves, and, in fact, keep having to reorder them because they wear out.
Children --both boys and girls -- love the goofiness. They love not being serious and Dav Pilkey gives them what they want... in a variety of modes. There's his physical humor, his contextual humor, word humor, story humor.... Whether for visual or written reasons, these books motivate children to love reading and so they get my 5-Star approval.
I thought my son might have problems with the misspellings, but they didn't slow him down.
Somewhere in the X-burbs
Word Count: 4,373
Page Count: 176
Accelerated Reading level: 2.5 / points: 1.0
AR quiz: 138974
Lexile: GN420L
- Publisher: The Blue Sky Press
- ISBN-10: 0545385776
- sample pages available
Other Dav Pilkey books:
1. The Adventures of Captain Underpants (AR 4.3)
2. Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets (AR 4.7)
3. Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds) (AR 4.4)
4. Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants (AR 4.7)
5. Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman (AR 4.4)
6. Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets (AR 5.2)
7. Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 2: The Revenge of the Ridiculous Robo-Boogers
8. Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People (AR 4.7)
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