Captain Underpants

 The Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey is one of those books that kids love and parents tend to hate.  The story is about two fourth graders named George Beard and Harold Hutchins. The two boys go to a school which strongly discourages imagination and fun.  But you can't keep a good imagination down. The boys run their own comic book company. Of course no store will sell to a pair of boys wholesale so they do the next best thing. The boys go to the school's copying machine and run off the latest copies of their own comic books, then sell them to the other kids on the playground.
Mr. Benjamin Krupp is their principal. He is a mean man who has a deep hatred of children. He feels it is his sworn duty to protect the other children in the school from George and Harold's shenanigans. Poor Mr. Krupp! Little does he know that he is actually Captain Underpants!
Captain Underpants is really Mr. Krupp's secret identity.  He is such a deep secret that even Mr. Krupp doesn't realize who he is. Captain Underpants was created by George and Harold when they accidentally hypnotized Mr. Krupp.  Whenever Mr. Krupp hears snapping fingers, he turns into Captain Underpants. Captain Underpants costume consists of a red cape with black polka dots <what superhero would be without his cape?> and a pair of underpants. In order to turn back into Mr. Krupp Captain Underpants has to have water poured over his head.  In the first few books, Captain Underpants had no super powers, but believed he did. In order to keep Captain Underpants safe, George an Harold followed him around, interfering at the last critical second. But in the third book of the series, Captain Underpants gains his superpowers by drinking juice he finds on an alien spaceship.
The ninth Captain Underpants book just came out this month, with the tenth due in January.  Each one is more popular than the next.
Of course since the principal is such a jerk,  and the boys are so "bad". The powers that be <whom I'm convinced have never read a book in their life> have decided that the Captain Underpants series is bad for your children and must be banned at all cost to protect the little cherubs from the idea that occasionally, boys misbehave and adults might be mean. Parents, in case you are wondering, there is nothing harmful in Captain Underpants. You aren't fostering future serial killers who might take it into their heads to hypnotize you when they are 16 into letting them take the family car out for a drinking party.
Captain Underpants is just a simple fun series that encourages kids to read. I promise you if they take the car to a drinking party when they are 16 it won' t be because they hypnotized you!
Let them enjoy the series. Your children may never say thank you for letting them read what they like. But their grades will be thanks enough.