Crackers is a fictional character in the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey. (S)he is a pterodactyl (a Quetzalcoatlus to be exact) the two main characters of the story, George Beard and Harold Hutchins, discovered and adopted in Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part II.
Character
In Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part II, George and Harold were in need of a flying transport, and so, using the Purple Potty time machine, went back in time to get a pterodactyl from the past. Harold in particular took an instant liking to Crackers---so named from the snack they used to attract him/her---and wanted to keep Crackers while George felt it necessary to return the dinosaur to his/her proper time.
Gender
Cracker's gender is somewhat in question (as the above double-pronouns show). In Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People, Evil George and Evil Harold (the main characters' twins from a negative universe) attempt to hypnotize Crackers and Sulu with a 3-D Hypno-Ring. While Sulu turns evil at the villains' command, Crackers does not and instead saves the heroes when ordered to attack.
A Couple of Quotes follow:
- "But he got hypnotized just like Sulu," said Harold. "Why on Earth would he do the opposite of what he was ordered to do?"
- "And how come all of our pronouns are getting italicized?" asked George.
The reference, obvious to those familiar with the books, is that the 3-D Hypno- Ring does not work properly on women; instead of doing what they're ordered to do when hypnotized, they do the opposite(as revealed in Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman). It would thus be suggested that Crackers is actually a female, but the boys always assumed that she was a male. While one might suppose that the 3-D Hypno-Ring from the alternate universe would be opposite---that it would work on women but not males---this seems unlikely, since Evil George and Evil Harold managed to turn their universe's version of Mr. Krupp into the villainous Captain Blunderpants without such problem. While no further indication of Cracker's gender is given in the novel, it is likely from this evidence that Crackers is in fact female.
Role in Novels
Crackers is first encountered in Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part II, when the boys use him/her as a flying mode of travel. Harold---the more attached of the two---hides him/her in the pair's treehouse instead of sending Crackers back to his/her proper time period afterwards. George---the more responsible one---insists they correct the problem, and the book ends with them trying to travel back in time, but ending up in the Evil Universe instead. Afterwords they do not try to bring Crackers back in time, and thus it is possible (s)he will remain a permanent pet. But there is still a chance that Crackers will leave the pack because at the end of Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People, George, Harold, Sulu and Crackers are being chased by Tippy Tinkletrousers, a.k.a. Professor Poopypants, on a Tyrannosaurus rex in the late Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era.