The Teacher from the Black Lagoon

It’s the first day of school. Who will be my teacher? Will it be Mr. Smith with his warts and dandruff? Or Mrs. Jones with her whip and her wig?

It’s Mrs. Green. She’s really green . . . and she has a tail. She uses her claws to scratch her name on the blackboard.

What will happen to Freddie when he throws a spitball? How will Mrs. Green demonstrate fractions to the class?

Will the students make it through recess without incident?

=========

Colorful illustrations and a highly-relatable situation make this a perfect book for children. The targeted audience for this hilarious picture book, young readers ages four through eight, preschool through the primary grades, are sure to enjoy this preposterous tale of the first day of school. show more Young readers are familiar with uncertainness connected to the first day of school and can readily empathize with the main character.

Having the majority of the story turn out to be nothing more than a dream is sure to allay any fears that young readers might feel as Mrs. Green eliminates several students. Read this with your young reader and be ready for non-stop giggling.

Highly recommended show less

I really liked this book for many reasons. First, the humorous writing of the story makes it a great book for children of all ages. For example, when Thaler writes “Freddy Jones throws a spitball. She curls her lip and breathes fire at him. Freddy’s gone. There is just a little pile of ashes on his desk”. This quote represents the exaggeration of a teacher disciplining a child but in fantasy-based, extreme measures. Another reason I like this story is because the relatable characters. Many children have a lot of positive and negative anxiety about the first day of school and this story heightens those concerns and makes them funny. The characters in the story are relatable even though the plot of the story is strictly fantasy. The show more main idea of this story is to use humor and exaggeration to help children handle all the emotions and fears of the first day of school. show less

In my opinion, this is a great book. I liked this book because of the authors' illustrations. For the teacher, she is being made out to look like a monster and the detail on her alligator-like skin is very realistic looking. It also follows along with the student being afraid of the teacher and expecting the worst of her. Also, the illustrations of the teacher breathing fire, making students head into a globe, and cutting a student in half for teaching fractions really shows us what kind of teacher the student is expecting. Another reason I liked this book was the plot, it flows fantastically. It starts with the student being nervous for school, we get into the suspensefulness of the things he thinks this scary teacher will do to him, show more and then finally him waking up for a nap realizing his teacher is actually this blonde haired pretty woman who will be a great teacher. I think the big idea of this book is to prepare the worst and hope for the best in an unknown situation. The main character thought his teacher was going to be this scary woman and freaked himself out when in reality it was just his overactive imagination playing tricks on him. show less

I liked this book for numerous reasons. The book pushed readers to think about their own assumptions of their teachers before meeting them. Many students are quick to judge teachers from reviews they hear from other students; however, this book enlightens the reader and challenges them to question these judgments before meeting the teacher or anyone. I think this hearsay is most evident in “I hear Mr. Smith has dandruff and warts, and Mrs. Jones has a whip and a wig”. I think most student’s judge their teacher before they even walk into the classroom, but his book brings to the readers attention that these rumors might not always be true. Although the judgments are exaggerated, they play on the typical fears of students. show more Additionally, the language in the book is also very descriptive. When describing Mr. Green, the monster version, the author says, “She curls her lip and breathes fire at him. Freddy’s gone.” Although the author doesn’t take many words to describe the teacher, her words are very vivid and descriptive. This creates a spooky image in the readers mind providing clarity and interest. Overall, I think the big message of this book is to not judge someone just on others opinions of hearsay. show less

"The Teacher from the Black Lagoon" is one of the classic books from the early 21st century and I never read it until now. The story is simple to follow, a boy arrives to school for the first time and is in class waiting for his teacher, Mrs. Green. While he is waiting he has a dream that Mrs. Green is a crocodile-lizard who lays waste to many of the boy's classmates. At the end of the story, Mrs. Green turns out to be a pretty blonde-haired teacher.

I truly love horror stories and this is definitely one of them. Throughout the story I felt scared for the boy and his classmates. The other thing I found interesting about this story was how each classmate met their end. They were burned, devoured, headless, and many others. Mike Thayer show more manages to create a horror book with some elements of grotesque without having any sort of violence or blood shown which makes this a kid friendly book. show less

Fiction, Picture book, fantasy; This book literally made me laugh out loud. It highlighted some of the fears and anxieties that students face on the first day of school about their new teachers. The boy was terrified and imagined his new teacher was a green dinosaur who ate children and gave homework on the first day. This would be a good text for the first days of school to help students and teachers get to know one another and "break the ice." It could be used to foster discussions about dreams, imagination, and literary devices. The main point of this text is to entertain readers with relation to real life and fantasy.

Mike Thaler writes about a boy on his first day of school. When he goes to class, he finds out that his teacher, Mrs. Green, is a green monster with a tail. She is awful to all of the students, and does outrageous things, such as breathing fire at them. She continues to do crazy things until the bell rings, and the boy wakes up and realizes it was a dream all along. He wakes up to a kind Mrs. Green who is not a monster at all. Jared Lee’s illustrations are really great. They add even more humor to Thaler’s story. I remember really enjoying this book as a child, and I still enjoyed it as I read it today. The book includes so much humor that I think all readers would enjoy.