May the Farce Be With You: The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung Fu Cavemen from the Future by Dav. Pilkey

OOK AND GLUK LIVED WAY BACK I THE YEAR 5000,001 B.C. IN A VILLEGE CALLED CAVELAND, OHIO. OOK AND GLUK WERE BEST FRIENDS. THEY HAD BEEN HAVING AWESOME ADVENTURES TOGETHER EVEN SINCE THEY WERE CAVE BABIES.

ONE TIME WHEN THEY WERE 9, THEY ALMOST GOT ATE UP BY MOG-MOG, THE FEARSEST DINOSAUR IN CAVELAND.

AND ONCE THEY EVEN TRAVELED TO THE FUTURE, LEARNED KUNG-FU, AND SAVED THERE WHOLE VILLEGE FROM EVIL ROBOTS AND TIME-TRAVELING WEIRDOS.

BUT BEFORE WE CAN TELL YOU THAT STORY WE HAVE TO TELL YOU ... THIS STORY...

That master of preteen parody, Dav Pilkey, is back with a new laugh-out-loud tale, purportedly concocted by the bards of Jerome Horowitz Elementary School, those fourth-grade graphic novelists George Beard and Harold Hutchins, alleged creators of the runaway best-selling The Adventures of Captain Underpants series. Using the comic page frames and invented spelling which Pilkey developed to a high art, his latest story indeed has an epic sweep as it deftly spoofs the venerable science fiction time travel tale. It all begins with a prehistorical nemesis Big Cheif [sic] Goppernopper and his henchmen and his vendetta against our heroes, who have graffitied his beloved throne....

GOPPERNOPPER: "Gards! "

GARDS: "Here we are, Cheif Grasshopper! "

GOPPERNOPPER: "My names not Grasshopper, its Goppernopper!!! Jeez, How many times me got to tell you?"

GARDS: "We sorry, Chief Gobstopper! "

GOPPERNOPPER: "While you dummies were goofing off, my throne was defiled (pointing to graffiti 'Ook was here. Gluk too') "

GARDS: "Yeah, and sombody wrote on your chair, too. "

GOPPERNOPPER: "Me going to teach Ook and Glook a lesson once and for all! "

GARD 1: "Him's name not Glook, it 'Gluk.'"

GARD 2: "It rime with 'duck.'"

GOPPERNOPPER: "Me no care what hims name rime with! Lets just go arest them!"

(So off they went.)

Gard 1: "It also ryme with 'stuck'."

Gard 2: "And 'truck.'"

Goppernopper's search for the young vandals leads him to discover his modern alter ego and dastardly descendant Boss Goppernopper, from the year 2222, who, having invented the time-travel portal, is mining the past cave world for its natural resources and making a killing selling lumber, minerals, and pristine prehistoric water in the ecologically devastated future. Chief Goppernopper likes his great, great, etc. grandson's style and helps him recruit the Cavelanders as slave laborers. All this is too much for Ook and Gluk, who choose to go forward in time and stop this travesty. On the way they learn Kung-Fu wisdom from Master Wong: "He who conquers his own mind is the greatest warrior."

And it's no surprise that Ook and Gluk, with the help of their pet dino, Lily, who barfs at the most opportune times, elude the elder and younger Goppernoppers' evil intentions and, using the wisdom of Wong, even trick their wicked overloads into a fight in which the younger Goppernopper zaps his ancestor, which, in the best time-travel tradition, ensures his own non-existence in the present and expunges his despoiling of prehistory as well. Ook and Gluk return to the now restored prehistoric Eden of Caveland, Ohio, and all's well that ends well.

It's all glorious silliness, of course, but also dang clever spoofery and artwork, done up in Pilkey's best genre-bending style and bound to keep the middle elementary crowd in stitches throughout what looks to be an extended series. Dav Pilkey's The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future (Blue Sky/Scholastic, 2010) should, like it predecessor, banish the reluctant reader to an almost extinct species for as long as copies of this giggle fest are to be had anywhere in the world!