"The Teacher from the Black Lagoon" By Mike Thaler- Reviewed by Allison Fox (Post #2)

I remember this book as one of my favorites while growing up. I think that nearly every teacher that I had in elementary read this to us on the first day of school. The book follows a young boy on his first day of school and the anxiety that he faces on meeting his teacher for the first time. On hearing that her name is “Mrs. Green” his imagination begins to run wild at who he thinks he will have to face for the next school year. Then he begins to visualize meeting slithery Mrs. Green and all that she does to her misbehaving students. From breathing fire at Freddy Jones who throws spitballs, to teaching fractions by biting a whole boy in half, she seems just awful, and even does the worst possible thing by giving homework on the first day! Mrs. Green is pretty much everything and more that a child dreads about a teacher and the narrator is stuck with her all year long. However, during nap time the student falls asleep and wakes up to see a pretty young woman, Mrs. Green, and she even has real skin and no tail!
The book is a funny short and easy to read story about the worries that every child faces before meeting their teacher. I think that reading this book would be a good way to ease some of the anxiety felt by most students on the first day of class. I think that it would act as good bonding for students to teachers as they appreciate that they don't have Mrs. Green (although Ms. Fox might sound a little scary on paper too!) The pictures are comical and use characters that almost look like comic strip images. The students' facial expressions are priceless, and Mrs. Green reminds me of a couple of teachers that I had in high school! The simple, everyday issue dealt with in the story could be felt by any student, especially young ones who are not used to having a teacher like authority, and therefore is in Piaget's Preoperational Stage of learning. I love this book and think that it can be enjoyed by all ages!