My Teacher Glows in the Dark
3.5/5
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About this ebook
Peter Thompson has had some pretty weird teachers in his life. By the time he discovers that his newest teacher glows in the dark, he’s flying away from Earth in a spaceship full of aliens, and there’s no one he can call. How do you report an alien to the FBI anyway?
Before Peter can do anything, he’s taken on the strangest field trip of his life! His friends, his father, his school—all are suddenly a million miles away!
Bruce Coville
BRUCE COVILLE is the author of over 100 books for children and young adults, including the international bestseller My Teacher is an Alien, the Unicorn Chronicles series, and the much-beloved Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. His work has appeared in a dozen languages and won children's choice awards in a dozen states. Before becoming a full time writer Bruce was a teacher, a toymaker, a magazine editor, a gravedigger, and a cookware salesman. He is also the creator of Full Cast Audio, an audiobook company devoted to producing full cast, unabridged recordings of material for family listening and has produced over a hundred audiobooks, directing and/or acting in most of them. Bruce lives in Syracuse, New York, with his wife, illustrator and author Katherine Coville.
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Reviews for My Teacher Glows in the Dark
100 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Odd, the workings of serendipity. This came off the pile just now immediately after Jack McDevitt's Cauldron, and I realize that in a way they're not so dissimilar in terms of plot. This time it's a kid, Peter, who's transported to the far reaches of the galaxy, where He Has Adventures. A mighty difference is that this book can't be more than about 20% of the length of McDevitt's. It's also far more lightly written (and has better jokes). One could make the same sort of criticisms of it, I guess, as I have of Cauldron, yet in this instance, long before I'd had a chance to weary of the lack of a proper plot, I'd finished the book. No classic, but I'll be looking out for others in the series.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5My Teacher Glows in the Dark is the third book in the My Teacher Is an Alien series. The book describes the adventures of Peter Thompson after he left the Earth with the alien Broxholm at the end of My Teacher Is an Alien. The book is told from Peter's perspective, making him the third viewpoint character in the series, the first two having been told from the perspective of Susan Simmons and Duncan Dougal respectively.The action starts in Kennituck Falls, as Peter and Broxholm evade those who are trying to capture the alien, quickly reaching Broxholm's ship and leaving the Earth. They quickly travel to the far side of the Moon and rendezvous with the starship New Jersey (so named because the ship is the same size as New Jersey). Once on board, Peter is subjected to some rather unsettling albeit benign boarding procedures and finds himself in a truly alien world. Peter is introduced to the alien Hoo-Lan who undertakes to serve as Peter's teacher to introduce Peter to the intergalactic society he has joined. Hoo-Lan can glow in the dark, giving the book its title, although this doesn't become a plot point (making this the only book in the series where the title isn't a plot point).Peter quickly learns that the galaxy is stranger than he had previously believed, Peter also discovers that the assembled alien races think humanity is uncivilized and dangerous. Uncivilized because we are unkind to one another: allowing starvation and deprivation, engaging in wars, destroying our environment, and generally behaving badly. Dangerous because we apparently have the largest brains (although we apparently don't use them to their full potential) and are close to discovering the secret of interstellar space flight. This has led the aliens to study Earth to find out why we are the way we are, and divided the aliens into faction that variously believe Earth should be left alone, conquered, quarantined, or destroyed.Peter agrees to have his brain examined, in an effort to determine if humanity's behavior is due to a biological condition. After much study, the aliens discover that Peter is latently and naturally telepathic, which is apparently quite rare in the galaxy. Unfortunately, while attempting to study this further, Hoo-Lan falls into a coma, which the aliens, of course, suspect is Peter's doing. Oddly, they are made even more suspicious when, despite having given Peter free reign of the ship, he goes to a communications room and contacts Duncan to try to warn Earth of the aliens' plans.The book ends with the aliens agreeing to give Peter and Broxholm one last chance to find some redeeming characteristic of humanity that would save it, apparently having decided that otherwise they will destroy the Earth. This, to me, exposes the aliens' assertion of their own civilized nature as mere hypocrisy (which seems not to have been Coville's intention). That they are willing to destroy an entire planet (including the environment they are mad at humanity for damaging) merely because of their own fear seems to show their own claims to be utterly peaceful to be hollow and false. This just reinforces the other elements that demonstrate that the aliens are uncivilized in their own way: Broxholm's willingness to harm humans to escape (although it turns out he does not have to), the aliens' original plan to kidnap five unwilling children, and so on.This, plus the extraordinarily heavy-handed message of the book, prevents the book from being anything more than average. Even making allowances for the fact that the book is aimed at younger readers, Coville ladles the message on in heaping dollops, beating the reader about the head and shoulders with the inhumanity of humans, and asserting the comparative Nirvanah-like nature of the alien civilization. Consequently, despite generally interesting aliens, and a likable protagonist, the book is merely ordinary, which is a disappointment as with less of a heavy hand and more thought given to the alien civilization, the book could have been excellent.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A fun journey into outer space, where a young boy, tries to negotiate the fate of the world, with people from other parts of the universe. Simple, and very enjoyable read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone was looking forward to the beginning of sixth grade, after all they were going to have the best teacher in the school. But when Mr. Smith shows up, his strict rules and behavior make everyone realize that their perfect year has been ruined. Susan, spying on Mr. Smith, watches him peel off his face, uncovering that he is an alien. I remember fondly reading this series as a child, and when I saw a used copy for sale at the library I jumped on it. Needless to say, I found the book just as interesting and endearing now as I did then. I can't wait to pass it on to my nieces and nephews to read!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5i think this was a very interesting book.i would recomend i
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Susan and her friend Peter found out that their teacher, Mr Smith, is really an alien. They go spying in Broxholm's house. Broxholm is the name Susan heard when "Mr. Smith" was talking into the mirror, to an alien friend. Peter and Susan tell every one at school that Mr. Smith is an alien. Mr. Smith wants to take away five students! Peter and Susan have to do something, and fast!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A cleverly written book from beginning to end. Bruce Coville can write his ass off. Susan recruits Peter, the science fiction reading nerd, to help her unmask Mr. Smith as an alien. She finds out he wants to kidnap and examine the best and average students of her school, she concocts a plan. Peter creates Plan B, where he motivates himself and has Mr. Smith take him because he wants to learn about the other intelligence.Full of chuckle worthy moments, as a throwback book, it delivers.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A good reluctant reader early chapter book. Not my favorite Coville, but filled with his wacky humor. I'd rather have kids reading Coville than R.L. Stine any day.
Book preview
My Teacher Glows in the Dark - Bruce Coville
CHAPTER ONE
I Choose the Stars
So there we were—Susan Simmons, Duncan Dougal, and me, Peter Thompson—sitting in an alien spaceship the size of New Jersey, waiting to learn how we were supposed to save the world, when Susan said, All right, Peter, give.
Beg your pardon?
I asked innocently.
Tell us what’s been going on! Five months ago you took off for outer space with Broxholm. Five minutes ago you showed up in a beam of blue light and told Duncan and me we had to help you save the world. I want to know what happened in between.
Me, too!
said Duncan.
Five months ago I wouldn’t have cared what Duncan Dougal thought. As far as I was concerned, he was the world’s biggest snotball, a kid whose main hobbies were drooling on his homework, farting in class, and beating me up. I thought he was as likable as a mosquito, as friendly as a rattlesnake, and as useful as a screen door in a spaceship.
But that was before I got a good look at the inside of his head—which was less frightening and more sad than I ever would have guessed.
Well, since you asked . . .
I drawled.
Peter,
snapped Susan, for five months every kid in Kennituck Falls has been dying to know what happened to you after you went off with Broxholm. Stop stalling and tell the story, or you’re going to be very sorry!
So I told them. But that wasn’t good enough. Oh, no. Now they insist I have to write it down. We wrote about our part,
they keep saying. "Now it’s your turn."
So here goes:
As you probably know, it all started when this alien named Broxholm wanted to kidnap five kids from our sixth grade class last spring. He started by trapping our real teacher, Ms. Schwartz, in a force field. He kept her in his attic while he disguised himself as a substitute teacher named Mr. Smith and took over our class.
One day Susan followed Mr. Smith home and saw him peel off his face. Underneath his human mask was a green-skinned, orange-eyed alien.
Susan came to me for help, mostly because she didn’t think anyone else would believe her. She thought I might because I used to read so much science fiction.
The two of us spent days trying to figure out how to stop Broxholm. One night I was sitting home alone, eating a can of cold beans and wondering where my father was, when it hit me that if we couldn’t stop Broxholm, if some kids had to go into space, I might as well be one of them. It wouldn’t be any worse than staying where I was. And it might be better.
I was frightened by the idea, of course. But I didn’t think the aliens were going to dissect my brain or anything like that. In fact, I figured I might learn as much from them as they did from me.
That was the key, I guess; I knew I could learn something. That was important to me, since learning is the one thing I really like. If that sounds strange, look at it like this: if other kids treated you like a nerd and a geek all the time, if you went for weeks feeling like books were your only friends—well, you might really be into learning, too.
Anyway, between being the school dumping ground for emotional toxic waste and having a father who didn’t give two bags of llama droppings whether I was alive or dead, I figured I didn’t have much to lose by going with Broxholm.
Besides, more than anything else in the world, I wanted to travel to the stars and explore other planets.
That’s why when Susan and the school band overpowered the alien on the night of our spring concert, I slipped around back to help him escape.
After I let Broxholm out, he turned and used something that looked like a pencil to melt the door shut.
Oh, oh, I thought. Now you’re in for it, Peter.
But then I thought, Well, wait a minute. If he has a weapon like that, he could have fried the whole crowd.
Since he hadn’t, I figured he wasn’t going to make me into sausage; at least, not right away.
So when he started to run, I began to run alongside him.
What are you doing?
cried the alien.
I want to come with you!
I think Broxholm would have stopped running right then, if he had figured it was safe. It wasn’t, so he kept going. He was in good shape; I didn’t hear him pant or gasp for breath at all. (Of course, for all I knew, when people from his planet got tired it made their armpits ache.)
Three blocks from the school he stopped running.
Then he disappeared.
I felt like my heart had disappeared, too. Never mind that Broxholm was a lean, green kidnapper from outer space. He was going back to the stars, and I wanted to go with him.
Broxholm!
I yelled. Wait! Take me!
Be quiet while I adjust this!
snapped a voice beside me.
An instant later I disappeared, too. Which is to say, I became invisible because of something Broxholm did.
Wow,
I whispered, looking down at where I used to be, "that’s awesome!"
Shut up, or you stay here,
growled Broxholm.
I shut up. I may have saved his bacon back at the school, and I may have been the only one willing to go with him, but I figured if I got in the way of his escape, Broxholm would dump me faster than my mother had dumped my father when something better came along.
Now, follow me,
whispered Broxholm.
How? I can’t see you!
After a moment of silence, I felt strong hands grab me by the waist. Stay quiet!
hissed Broxholm as he tossed me over his shoulder. It reminded me of the first day I had met him, when he picked up Duncan and me to stop us from fighting.
He started to run. He was amazingly fast.
When we reached the little house where Broxholm had been living, he made us both visible again. Turning to me, he said, I have some things to do before we can go. I also owe you a favor. Here it is: you have three minutes to change your mind. Otherwise, you’re coming with me.
Before I could say a thing, he walked away—leaving me alone to make the biggest decision of my life.
Back at school that decision had been easy. Lying in my bed, in my empty house, I had known for sure what I would do. But this wasn’t just some wishing game anymore. It was real.
I thought about my father. Would he miss me? Probably. At least, for a little while. Then he’d probably be just as glad I was gone; one less nuisance for him to cope with.
I thought about school, where I spent most of my time trying not to get beat up by Duncan and other jerks who thought being smart was a crime.
My life would have been a lot different if it was okay to be smart in school. But it’s not. It’s okay to be pretty smart. But not real smart—which is kind of stupid when you think about it. I mean, all these guys picking on smart kids and calling them geeks and dweebs are going to grow up and want to know why they don’t do something about the terrible state the world is in.
I can tell you why. By the time they grow up, most of the kids who really could have changed things are wrecked.
I’ll bet you this very minute, even while you’re reading these words, some kid who’s bright enough to cure cancer when he or she grows up is getting hassled for being an egghead.
Any takers?
Anyway, I had plenty of reasons to run away. But that wasn’t what made up my mind. I didn’t just want to run away; I wanted to run to something. And that something was space.
I thought about my father again,