Fourth-grade cut-ups Harold and George and their principal-turned-superhero are as funny as ever in Pilkey's third Captain Underpants caper. (For those in the dark, the superhero in question is an underwear-clad, toilet-paper-toting crusader for ""Truth, Justice, and ALL that is Preshrunk and Cottony""). As in the earlier installments, this zany tale adopts a variety of formats, including sprightly illustrated text; reproductions of the two boys' homemade comic books; and ""flip-o-rama"" pages that replicate ""world-famous cheesy animation technique."" Captain Underpants and his errant students here go up against a trio of aliens posing as lunch ladies. Suddenly students begin turning into ""zombie nerds"": ""Look,"" says George, ""They're all wearing broken eyeglasses held together with masking tape... and they've got vinyl pocket protectors!!!"" It's all part of the aliens' quest to take over the world: ""It won't be long now,"" says the evil Klax. ""Tomorrow we'll feed them Super Evil Rapid-Growth Juice! Then they will grow to the size of Zleqxisfp trees."" Those with a limited tolerance for the silly need not apply to the Captain Underpants fan club, yet its legion members will plunge happily into his latest bumbling adventure. Ages 7-10. (Sept.)
