My Teacher is an Alien

My Teacher is an Alien
By: Bruce Coville
Science Fiction

This book is about a young girl named Susan who discovers her teacher is an alien. Her class becomes disappointed when they go to school one day and realize Mrs. Schartz, their teacher that they loved, has been replaced by a unreasonable man named Mr. Smith. When Mr. Smith picks up a note Susan wrote about him with her assignment, she tries everything she can to get it back. When her least resort is going to her house. She is surprised to hear weird noises and suspects Mr. Smith is in trouble. After entering the house she sees him remove his mask and is shocked to find out he is an alien. She decides to tell Peter, the science fiction lover of her class what she discovered and they decide to get evidence by going back to his house. They are frightened to find Mrs. Schartz in his attic surrounded by a force field. She communicates to them telepathically and tells them to warn the other children that the alien plans to take five students with him back to his planet on May 26th. Susan then tries desperately to unmask him by fainting in class and trying to grab his ear, but instead ends up with a bump on her head. Susan is asked to stay after class when Mr. Smith discovers she, Peter and Duncan were in his home earlier that day. They were disappointed to find out the pictures they had taken of Mrs. Schartz in the force field were only pictures of blue streak. People at the school became nervous when they head of the alien invasion and they were scared "Broxholm" may choose them as one of the kids to take back. At the music concert Susan got the idea to play her picollo because she knew how much Broxholm hated music. The whole class began to play and told him they would only stop if he removed his mask. It worked, but then Peter opened the door helping "Mr. Smith" (Broxholm) escape and they returned to space in his ship. Susan imagined Peter must be happy because he finally got to see what space was like after reading about it in his science fiction books. Mrs. Schartz was also freed.

This could be a good book to use in the classroom because it can inspire lots of creativity in the classroom. One way to use this in the classroom could be having your students write a letter to someone trying to convince them that someone they know is an alien. Also, you could have them draw pictures of the alien they have just discovered. Another way to implement this in the classroom would be having your students continue the story by writing what they think would happen next.