Captain underpants and the tyrannical retaliation of the turbo toilet 2000 by Dav Pilkey

Scholastic, 2015, ISBN 9781760151553
(Ages: 8-10) Recommended for reluctant readers. This is the "eleventh epic novel" by Dav Pilkey and it is the first this reviewer has read in this series, despite having loaned it out to many readers in the target audience. It could never be described as 'erudite literature'. It has an impossible plot line and crazy mixture of flip-page illustrations (flip-o-rama) and Graphic story format and references to super-charged toilets, cloned central characters, space junk monsters, pre-historic creatures and a school principal that morphs into an underwear exposed Super-hero (when he isn't locked away in a home for the 'Reality-challenged'). The weird, quirky, implausible and gross complications are all designed to appeal to the young male reader who would probably find all these features engaging. Hopefully they grow out of this phase of reading and move into something that engages the brain matter more, but while there are boys who laugh at gross jokes involving toilets and exposed underwear (especially if worn by teachers!), there will a reading audience.
(But move them on quickly!)
Carolyn Hull