Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers by Dav PilkeyMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
My seven-year-old has just gotten interested in these books, and this was our first. In the beginning I was a little irritated because the "comic book" part is written by the kindergarteners and, of course, the spelling and punctuation is ALLL wrong. Yes, as an editor, it makes me crazy. But, when I let myself move past that (somewhat), I found this is really a cute story and it teaches a lot of good lessons along the way.
Harold, one of the main characters, doesn't really have any friends and is picked on by Kipper, the school bully. George, the new kid in town, comes to Harold's rescue and they become the best of friends. Together, they create comics--George is the writer and Harold is the illustrator. I think this is an awesome way to teach kids about bullying, friendship, and encouraging the strengths of others and working together to bring out the best in everyone.
Aside from the grammatically irritating comic portions, this book is very well written and very entertaining for all ages. I love the way the author tosses in things like sarcastically, slippery sabertooth (that's my own phrase, but you get the idea). I felt like my son was appropriately challenged in his reading (this book is a couple levels above his ZPD), but he didn't become bored with the material. It is fantastic to have a longer chapter book with illustrations or basically every page. And he loved the flipbook portions as well.
Very cute! I definitely recommend it, and we'll be checking out the other Captain Underpants books soon!
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