Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot by Dav Pilkey

Captain Underpants bk 12. Scholastic, 2015. ISBN 9781760152611
(Age: 8+) Dav Pilkey's twelfth Captain Underpants book is filled with all the grossness, wicked humour and funny situations that the fans love.
George and Harold are back along with their clones Yesterday George and Yesterday Harold and of course they up are up to their usual antics. Two of them attend school while the other two hang out in the tree house playing video games, and at first this seems ideal. When the boys' evil gym teacher Mr. Meaner consumes a tiny chunk of Zygo-Gogozizzle 24 and his brain becomes super-charged, things rapidly change. He invents a secret formula made from several chemicals and Clamato Juice that needs to be strained through dirty, stinky gym socks. This creation becomes a mind-control spray that turns students into obedient, perfect children who do as Mr. Meaner and the other teachers command. When Yesterday George and Yesterday Harold are called into the gym teacher's office and are sprayed with the noxious cloudburst, their crazy behaviour changes dramatically.
George and Harold need a plan and develop disguises to protect them from the evil spray. Dressed as adults, they command the students to perform crazy stunts, filling the teachers' cars with cottage cheese, watering inside houses and shaving off eyebrows. A trip to the future in the time-travelling Robo-Squid suits finally foils Mr. Meaner - Sir Stinks-A-Lot's - plans and all is back to normal for the boys, well at least for a moment.
Dav Pilkey's inclusion of ADHD comments, twisted 60's song titles for chapter headings and some political remarks seem to have been included for an adult audience - parents reading this junior graphic novel for younger fans. He even includes hints for the next installment - time travelling as well as a Dog Man comic.
Rhyllis Bignell