Scan barcode
A review by alanaes
My Teacher Glows in the Dark by Bruce Coville
5.0
I remember loving this series when I was a kid. The first two books are a little slow, but are a great set-up for books three and four, which are something special.
Book 3, My Teacher Glows in the Dark, is about a middle school boy named Peter who escapes to outer space with his ersatz teacher (alien in disguise), and finds himself in the unique role of reckoning with humanity's ugliness while defending Earth's right to exist in the galaxy. There are aliens on the Intergalactic Council (Space UN!) who believe humanity can be better, and aliens who believe humans a violent animals and everyone would be better off if Earth were destroyed. Some pretty heavy philosophical questions are addressed with finesse for a book written for this level.
The following excerpt shows a conversation between human protagonist, Peter, and his alien mentor, Hoo-Lan, when they visit the mentor's home planet:
The aliens are NOT impressed with humanity's lack of humanity.
Very quick read! I think I read this in third or fourth grade. My seventh-grader is into it as a read aloud.
Book 3, My Teacher Glows in the Dark, is about a middle school boy named Peter who escapes to outer space with his ersatz teacher (alien in disguise), and finds himself in the unique role of reckoning with humanity's ugliness while defending Earth's right to exist in the galaxy. There are aliens on the Intergalactic Council (Space UN!) who believe humanity can be better, and aliens who believe humans a violent animals and everyone would be better off if Earth were destroyed. Some pretty heavy philosophical questions are addressed with finesse for a book written for this level.
The following excerpt shows a conversation between human protagonist, Peter, and his alien mentor, Hoo-Lan, when they visit the mentor's home planet:
All the animals seemed happy and well cared for.
All the people did, too.
After a while I began to get suspicious. I know enough about cities to feel like something was missing.
"Don't you have anyone hungry here, anyone without a home?" I asked at last.
"Why should we?"
"I don't think you should," I said. "I just didn't know there could be a city without people like that."
"There can't, on your planet. The difference is that we've made a decision that it's not going to be that way. There's enough to go around, you know. Enough here, and enough on Earth. It's not like people have to be cold and hungry. You just haven't decided it's a bad idea."
"Of course we think it's a bad idea!"
"No, you think you think it's a bad idea. If your people, all your people, really believed it was a bad idea, they would stop talking about it and change things so it didn't happen anymore."
The aliens are NOT impressed with humanity's lack of humanity.
Very quick read! I think I read this in third or fourth grade. My seventh-grader is into it as a read aloud.