Review: Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers / Author: Dav Pilkey / Publisher: Scholastic / Release Date: Out Now

This is the tenth Captain Underpants book and a direct sequel to The Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers, but new readers needn’t worry – the plot is explained, as is the whole concept in case this is your first book.

Aimed squarely at children in the 8-12 bracket (though older ones still read them for fun), these books are well written and slightly cheeky in the way that children of this age like. The plot is that our heroes George and Harold have been turned into evil zombie nerds and, what’s worse, Tippy Tinkletrousers has changed the course of history so that that Captain Underpants never existed! What follows is a romp through the aeons with more timey-wimeyness than a season of Doctor Who. We get the true story of the death of the dinosaurs, multiple versions of several people and a blatant disregard for anything except fun. The text is liberally sprinkled with cartoons and we have the trade-mark Flip-o-Rama sections.

Needless to say, it all ends well and we catch our breath as we await the next title –The Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo-Toilet 2000. Dav Pilkey certainly shows no sign of dropping the quality. Have you read your underpants today?