Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets
No. 6 in the Captain Underpants series
by Dav Pilkey
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Scholastic (New York): 1 September 2003. Trade paperback: 175 pages. ISBN-10: 0-439-37610-6 Suggested retail price: $4.99 (US) Tags: elementary school; hamsters; Humor; ketchup; robots; snot; superheroes; tissues; underwear; Youth Tactical strength: [6/10] |
George and Harold have another adventure with Captain Underpants, a.k.a. Mr. Krupp the school principal. For show and tell, George and Harold teach the entire fourth-grade how to make "Squishies" -- a practical joke involving folded ketchup packets inserted between the toilet rim and lid. The class nerd, Melvin shows his Combine-O-Tron 2000 and merges a hamster and a robot into Sulu, the bionic hamster. Sulu doesn't do much now but will come to the aid of our protagonists in the near future.
After Melvin tattles on George and Harold, they draw and distribute a comic making fun of Melvin and his Combine-O-Tron 2000. Melvin dreams of revenge, and he builds an enormous robot and plans to combine himself with the robot. Just before the Combine-O-Tron 2000 completes the combination, Melvin sneezes, and the Combine-O-Tron merges the Melvin, the robot, and Melvin's snot into a bionic, slim-dripping monster. Melvin tries going to school, and while on a field trip to the local tissue factory, the snot part of Melvin turns evil. Melvin grows to the height of a building, dripping green slime and ooze all over the town . . . Oh! Where are the Power Puff Girls, um, I mean where is Captain Underpants. As the giant slime monster starts consuming fourth-graders, George snaps his fingers under Mr. Krupp's nose, and Captain Underpants emerges. He quickly rescues those consumed by the robot, but in the process he gets his head wet and returns to Mr. Krupp. The robot eats Mr. Krupp and continues its rampage. Oh, who will come to the rescue of the town now? Who will receive immortality in a sequence of three self-animated Flip-O-Rama monster beatings?
"'Alright already,' yelled George to the narrator" (93). Yes, this sixth installment in the Captain Underpants series appeals to young and old. For the young, it has page after page of snot dripping from just about every surface. For the old, it has postmodern characters that break the fourth-wall and talk directly to the author. And for everyone, a twisted ending that will require another entire volume to resolve, as the personalities of Mr. Krupp and Melvin get swapped between their bodies and the remnants of the snot monster turn into the Ridiculous Robo-Boogers, which continue their assault on the town.
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