cover image Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchr

Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchr

Dav Pilkey. Scholastic, $5.99 (133pp) ISBN 978-0-439-04996-2

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.)