Time Travel, Bullying, and a Brand New Captain Underpants

At the camp bus stop this summer, I couldn't help but notice the number of kids that filled their arms with Talking Toilets and Naughty Cafeteria Ladies and Bionic Booger Boys. They knew what was coming ... the first new Captain Underpants book in six years. Not only is the book worth the wait, it mixes a strong anti-bullying message in with its goofball humor.

Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers jumps right into the action of the last adventure, where our heroes George, Harold, and Captain Underpants were being led off to jail, framed for a crime their evil twins committed. But Tippy Tinkletrousers traveled back in time and interrupted the action. As we know from what scientists call the "Banana Cream Pie Paradox," though, time travel can be very dangerous. (You know the "Banana Cream Pie Paradox," right? It's when a scientist bakes a pie using bananas from his tree, but then travels back in time and through some Three Stooges antics and an accidental food fight, the tree gets destroyed. The banana tree couldn't produce the future bananas for the pie, and thus the future pie couldn't have existed. Discuss.)

While Tippy Tinkletrousers is time traveling, we flash back exactly five years, 11 days, 14 hours, and six minutes ago. George and Harold are about to meet and start kindergarten. Readers get to see how it all began, long before Captain Underpants entered the picture. The kindergartners of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School are being terrorized by an awful bully named Kipper Krupp. Does that name sound familiar? Yes, he's the nephew of Principal Krupp, so he totally gets away with his reign of terror. When Harold starts to get bullied, he and his new friend George decide to get even. Bullies are no match for smart, hilarious, comic book creators.

A bunch of different kids' media properties have tried to take on bullying with varying degrees of effectiveness. I'm so glad to see Dav Pilkey tackle this topic because the wildly popular Captain Underpants may be just the series to get this message to the kids that need it, both the bullies and the bullied. According to the letter that accompanied the review copy of the book, Dav Pilkey is writing from experience:

When I was growing up, I wasn't the kind of kid who'd be outside tossing a football or playing tag. I always preferred drawing pictures and making up my own stories to go along with them. This did not make me especially popular with some of the bullies in my neighborhood, who liked to torment me for being so different.

Luckily, I found a way to get through those times – by staying true to myself, and by reading. In books, I discovered new worlds where the bullies couldn't follow me. I didn't know it then, but I realize it now: Reading gave me superpowers.

While at times the bullying gets serious, the humor of the book makes it as readable and as hilarious as all of the other Captain Underpants adventures. The kids at the bus stop won't be disappointed.

Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers comes out on August 28, and fans won't need to wait six years for the next one. Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers will be out in January.