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Title: My Teacher Is an Alien by Bruce Coville, Mike Wimmer ISBN: 0-8335-9896-1 Publisher: Bt Bound Pub. Date: October, 1999 Format: Library Binding Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.59 (29 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Most Excellent Series
Comment: A truly great series. I first read it was I was probably 11 or 12 (which is the target-audience). I loved them. I have read them probably 5 or 6 times. Coville is an excellent writer; this is one of his crowning achievements in children's literature. Now I am twenty. I pulled out my old dusty copies of these works, and as soon as I finish Hunt for the Autumn Clowns I'm going to take a quick trip down memory lane with this serious (before I tackle the Potter books and R. Jordan). This is a very well-constructed series. The first book is an absolute classic. Although the others are excellent, just like Lion, Witch, Wardrobe this will be the one everyone thinks of when they think of the series. It has classic elements of an alien trying to kidnap people to do experiments and testing on. Save in this (if I remember correctly) you don't know WHY he wants the people, or kids. Then we go to the second, My Teacher Fried My Brains. A very lovable sequel, it is here we get into the mind of Duncan Dougal, the bully in the first book. We find "poots", a Medusa-like alien, and machine that makes you perceive music/TV in yr head and makes you a zillion times smarter (the zillion being a rough estimate, of course ;)). And it seems, perhaps, there is something more to the aliens then at first they thought. Won't give any spoilers away, so don't worry. But there is a nice little surprise at the end. Then we get to the third volume, My Teacher Glows in the Dark. My personal favorite, it's set on the spaceship New Jersey. It introduced all sorts of nice imagery, and concepts I have used in my own writings (The URAT. Surgically installed device, so you can understand the other creatures on board. Though not by device, I have used similar methods to cross over the language barrier when I want to have different species get together in my own stories for any suspended period of time). We get to meet the lovable Hoo-Lan, who is quite the doll. It is set entirely on the ship (with the exception of an instance where they go onto another planet), as state up above, so we get to see fascinating alien environments. Then we get to the fourth, My Teacher Flunked the Planet. It is here the series as a whole climaxes. It is the darkest story of the lot, primarily because of its subject matter is a lot denser and much more real in the sense of tragedy than the other three stories. The others build up to this moment. From a writer's standpoint, this is a most excellent case or instance of carefully crafted and wrought stories for children. It is here Coville ties up the loose ends (and there are quite a few). The ending is a very interesting concept or perception of humanity. Although I am a Christian, and I do not agree with the whole evolution idea, for the sake of the story it worked. It is much more of a sentimental favorite for me, because I grew up reading (and reading and reading and reading) these four volumes.
As I said, my personal favorite is the third story. The only problem with this one is it is heavily dependent on the others three books to carry the story. My Teacher is an Alien, which was never intended for a series, is the most stand alone of all the books. It has the most distinct feel of a modern children's classic.* But, unlike The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (for me), this is as good as the rest of them. Then the publishers wanted more because it turned out to be an unexpected hit. So he wrote the second. It is stand alone - to a point. You can tell there is more coming, and the issue is not resolved. Then the third one just exaggerates that feeling. Its like Act I builds and sets the rules. It doesn't need another thing to be complete. It is complete in sense it is self-contained. Act II further complicates Act I, and hints at what is to be in Act III. But to be complete, it needs Act III. Act III comes along. Originally, according to the preface in the Collector's edition, it was supposed to be a trilogy, but the story was too long, so he divided up into two parts. Act III in this instances just builds and intensifies the need for completion. It depends on the two acts before it to build up to it, and then it depends on Act IV to complete it. Act IV is the completion. (Much of what I say here echoes what George Lucas said of Star Wars in the interview released with them when they rereleased the Star Wars original edition. ESB is the best in that series, but, just like Book 2 and 3 in this series, need RoJ to be completed, and is not a stand alone film).
* (When I say a classic feel, its just like The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. All the Narnia books are classics and are most excellent [scary, now I'm sounding like Bill and Ted - yike!], but LWW has the most classic feel of them all, and, btw, is my least favorite of the series. It has some classic scenes, especially Tumnus the Faun standing in the wood with parcels and an umbrella. But overall, the Christianity is way too explicit. I like, if you are using fantasy as a vehicle to express Christianity, not to be beat over the head with it, which is what I feel Lewis did with Aslan and the Stone Table. I love Narnia, and LWW is good, but the others are so MUCH better!)
Narnia is better than this, and most children's fiction for that matter.
Rating: 5
Summary: An engaging story that should delight many a young reader
Comment: When I come across a title such as this, I just have to take a look at the book for myself; when I find that there are three additional books forming a whole series based on the whole alien teacher concept, I have to read them all; I don't care if it's classified as "children's literature" because, to be frank, there are a lot of good "children's literature" books out there these days. With books such as this, by authors as engaging and gifted as Bruce Coville, aimed primarily at a fourth to sixth grade reading audience, it is harden to imagine that many kids just do not have any interest in reading. Heck, I'm an adult, and I loved this book. It's neither too long nor too short, puts believable characters in an extraordinary situation, mixes humor with warmth and intelligence, and - in case you missed it - features a substitute teacher who is in fact a reptilian alien in disguise. What's not to like here?
This first person story is told by Susan Simmons, your ordinary sixth grader. She has been looking forward to the final weeks of the school year because her teacher, Ms. Schwartz, is going to have the children stage a play. She is soon shocked to learn that Ms. Schwartz is not coming back; to make matters worse, the new teacher, Mr. Smith, has no interest in staging plays or teaching in his predecessor's unconventional but highly effective (i.e., fun) style. Susan doesn't like Mr. Smith at all, and like many a kid before her eventually finds herself in a bind thanks to a note she wrote in class. In her attempt to get the note back, she discovers that Mr. Smith is actually an alien and that he has come here to take five students back with him to wherever he came from. What's a girl to do? No adult would ever believe her, and most kids would think she was joking. She turns to Peter, a smart but unmotivated boy who eats, lives, and breathes science fiction. He doesn't exactly buy her story at first, but together they find enough evidence to convince him that she is telling the truth. Now all they have to do is find and save Ms. Schwartz, avoid being carried off into space by Mr. Smith, and somehow prove to even the most skeptical of adults that "we are not alone."
This book isn't scary at all, but there are a couple of suspenseful scenes involving the children snooping around in potentially dangerous places. Susan and Peter make for engaging characters, especially Susan; we see her having to deal with the reality of staying out of trouble, preparing for a big piccolo solo in the school concert, and forging a real friendship with Peter, on top of worrying herself sick over her big secret and struggling to come up with a plan of action. This really is an engaging, fast-paced science fiction tale that should spark the imagination of many a young reader.
Rating: 5
Summary: [My Teachers is an Alien]
Comment: My Teachers is an Alien
The book I read was My Teacher is an Alien. The story starts of with a new school year. Susan is a normal girl that just wants to learn and Peter who reads and reads and reads. He likes to read comics mostly about aliens so Susan came up and read one of his comics. When they get to class hey realize that they have a sub. Susan gets extremely upset because she loves her teacher a lot. When she finds out her teacher was captured and her sub is an alien she gets hysterical.
Susan is a very sweet and innocent girl. Peter is a weird geeky boy that dreams of being captured by aliens.
The problem for Susan is that first her teacher is an alien. Also her best friend Peter is in great danger. And last but not least her teacher is in some kind of trance and is hypnotized.
I would definitely recommend his book to someone who likes science fiction. Also for people who like mystery stories.
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Title: My Teacher Fried My Brains by Bruce Coville ISBN: 0671727109 Publisher: Aladdin Library Pub. Date: 01 June, 1991 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: MY TEACHER GLOWS IN THE DARK : MY TEACHER GLOWS IN THE DARK by Bruce Coville ISBN: 0671727095 Publisher: Aladdin Library Pub. Date: 01 October, 1991 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: My Teacher Flunked the Planet by Bruce Coville ISBN: 067175081X Publisher: Aladdin Library Pub. Date: 01 June, 1992 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: Aliens Ate My Homework by Bruce Coville ISBN: 0671727125 Publisher: Aladdin Library Pub. Date: 01 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: ALIENS STOLE MY BODY: BRUCE COVILLE'S ALIEN ADVENTURES by Bruce Coville ISBN: 0671798359 Publisher: Aladdin Library Pub. Date: 01 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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