The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon

The black lagoon series is known for its playfulness, I remember reading this series.The book captures the anxiety and humor of childhood fears, making it a reassuring read for young readers.

This book is a great book to be read aloud to students. With proper inflection and emotion, this book can be very interactive and suspenseful. The book is about a young boy who hears that there is a new gym teacher at his school, and he hears horrible rumors about how mean he is. In the end, the boy discovers that the gym teacher is just like a regular guy and he is very nice. I considered this book contemporary realistic fiction. Although the character imagines crazy things that the gym teacher might do, it is completely realistic for a child to have an imagination like that and be surprised to see that they were over exaggerating. The main purpose of the book is to portray to kids not to believe everything that you hear, because some show more rumors may not be true. show less

"The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon" is another book in the series of teachers from the black lagoon. Although this book is a bit lighter on the more gruesome parts of the books than others (due to lack of deaths), it carries the same format as the other books in the series. As the format goes, a little boy is about ready to start a new class with a new teacher. He talks about all the rumors that he has heard from the older kids about how the teachers are and how he gets worried. Then he actually meets the teacher and realizes they aren't anything like what the older kids say after all.

This is a great book that has a simple message along with simple wording, making it easier for younger readers to understand. The message is simply, show more do not trust gossip or rumors. Especially when it revolves around teachers or professors, everyone's experience is different and what a person who has already had that teacher experience was, yours might be different. show less

After reading The Teacher from the Black Lagoon, I immediately read The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon. I was intensely satisfied once again by the work of Mike Thaler. The book starts out with the same little boy who is now wondering who is gym teacher is going to be. At the end, of course, the gym teacher winds up being a handsome blond-headed young man. Unlike the first book, I found this one to be more kid-friendly because there weren't any deaths. Mike Thaler, instead, makes the gym teacher a character who tortures the kids with gruel exercises and activities. The pictures are well done and I laughed at the more funnier ones. I think this book deserves a read by fans of The Teacher from the Black Lagoon.

So funny! The boy is filled with terror towards is new teacher that he has yet to meet due to all of the rumors he has heard about him. The puns were witty too.

It is so common that older students tell younger students horrible things about their teacher. This is a good book to read to demonstrate that a teacher can turn out way better than they think.

Title: The Gym Teacher From The Black Lagoon
- Author: Mike Thaler
- Illustrator: Jared Lee
- Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
- Date: 1994 (year published)
- Pages: 32
- Type of Book/Genre: Picture Book, Fiction
- Short Summary of the Plot: The story begins with there being a new gym teacher at the school, and there are a lot of rumors about him. For example, that he is hairy and is nicknamed Coach Kong (he is depicted as a big, green, scary monster in the illustrations). He makes his students run all around the world, you have to lift his truck, he works the kids too hard and makes them throw up, he sets the rope that you are climbing on fire, play tag with glue, play baseball with actual bats, etc. After going through all the rumors, the kids show more meet the gym teacher and he is not a big scary monster, then they play basketball and end up liking gym.
- Tags/subject headings that describe the content: rumors, school, gym class, gym teachers.
- My response: I think this story can be used as a good teaching moment to not put stock into rumors, and to make your own judgements. show less