My Teacher Glows in the Dark has a captivating plot that involves Peter Thompson’s story about his transportation from earth to an alien world somewhere in the far reaches of space. Any reader can get the sense of the sensational, sci-fi character of Coville’s his stories by their titles: “My Teacher is an Alien,” “My Teacher Fried my Brain, Aliens Stole My Homework,” “Aliens Stole My Body,” and others. The author has not made the story believable as much as he has made it fascinating particularly for children with an interest in astronomy, exploration, adventure, and the concept of extra-terrestrial life. How has the author made the story believable? It is a story that has green-skinned, orange eyed glow-in-the-dark aliens, futuristic space machines, and spaceships that can transport a child like Peter Thompson, the main character, into outer space.

There is an abundance of make believe, science fiction elements in Coville’s My Teacher Glows in the Dark. What are the fantasy elements of the story? My Teacher Glows in the Dark New York: Aladdin Paperbacks. Previous: 'My Teacher Fried My Brains' ( )Ĭoville, B. Not that it's a big mystery, there's already been more than a little 'television rots your brain' talk in this series already, so I'm sure it'll be that kind of explanation. The cover image of Hoo-lan blasting a television set is still a mystery at the end of the book, Peter has seen a vision of it but Hoo-lan never explained it. It's a little much don't you think and goes against the idea of having kids think critically about how we behave as a species. Right, of course we would have the biggest brains in the universe. We haven't properly harnessed it yet, but when we do we may inflict our 'plague' of dissension across the entire peaceful league of alien worlds. Most damning of all, however, is the fact that we have the most stupendous brain capacity in the universe. We are aggressive, treat our planet shamefully, and have not as a species solved world hunger, poverty, etc. Very little really happens as this book is just a necessary stopgap to get the three main characters of Susan Simmons, Duncan Dougall and Peter Thompson (given the incredibly stupid name of 'Krepta, Child of the Stars') together for the Main Event.īecause, despite the great advances of the aliens, they are frightened of humanity.

Coville uses this book to mostly introduce a series of wacky alien species and inventions, hang some lampshades, and set up the comparatively 'heavy' book to follow. We also get to hear from Peter Thompson and just what he was up to in the five months between his running off with Broxholm at the end of 'My Teacher is an Alien' and when he showed up at the end of 'My Teacher Fried My Brains'. In the third book of the series we finally get to the bottom of where the aliens come from and why they were on Earth infiltrating a middle class American school system.

My teacher is an alien by bruce coville