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My Teacher Is an Alien #3
My Teacher Glows in the Dark
Kidnapped in Space?
Peter Thompson has had some pretty weird teachers in his time. By the time he discovers that his newest teacher glows in the dark, he’s flying away from Earth in a spaceship full of aliens and there’s no one he can call. How do you report an alien to the F.B.I. anyway?
Before Peter can do anything, he’s taken on the strangest field trip of his life! His friends, his father, his school are suddenly a million miles away!
Peter Thompson has had some pretty weird teachers in his time. By the time he discovers that his newest teacher glows in the dark, he’s flying away from Earth in a spaceship full of aliens and there’s no one he can call. How do you report an alien to the F.B.I. anyway?
Before Peter can do anything, he’s taken on the strangest field trip of his life! His friends, his father, his school are suddenly a million miles away!
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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January 15, 2023Apparently this is the third in the 'My Teacher' series by Coville. I must have read them out of order back in the day, which may explain why I enjoyed this the least of the series. It was still a lot of fun for a young kid.
April 7, 2011
I think the best way to characterize what well-written sci-fi this is (while still perfectly enjoyable for any 4th-6th grade-ish aged kid) is that the issue of going to the bathroom on an alien spaceship is handled logically and humorously. Also, I will forever give Coville credit for describing the 'wiki-walk' phenomenon at least a decade before such a thing existed, in the scene in which nerdy protagonist Peter gets understandably lost in the aliens' virtual reality encyclopedia.
Coville seems determined to trope-bust his way through every sci-fi cliche from 'wrinkly foreheaded aliens' on down, as in the scene when the captain of the ship turns out to be a tank of crystals, which rebukes Peter for his 'carbon-based' biases about what constitutes life.
All of this in a hilarious book about a sixth grader whose teacher is an alien. What more can you ask for?
Coville seems determined to trope-bust his way through every sci-fi cliche from 'wrinkly foreheaded aliens' on down, as in the scene when the captain of the ship turns out to be a tank of crystals, which rebukes Peter for his 'carbon-based' biases about what constitutes life.
All of this in a hilarious book about a sixth grader whose teacher is an alien. What more can you ask for?
January 12, 2020
It was fun. Filled with the usual sci-fi tropes-weird aliens for the sake of weird aliens, emphasis on the relative insignificance of man-but as I have said before of Goodebumps, when you’re writing juvenile or young adult fiction, you have the luxury of introducing kids to these tropes before they realize they are dated. But if an adult reads the book, they may see most of it as cliche.
I’m usually forgiving about all of that, and was in this case as well. It was a fun book. Kept my interest throughout. You meet sentient crystals, a machine that can synthesize anything, and a host of other cool things. Some cool ideas are introduced in here as well, like addiction to devices (this was written in 91, so a bit forward thinking here).
I may read other books in the series, and definitely plan to read more work from this author in the future. Probably not for a while though. I have two plastic bags of books from sales now. When I started reading more last year, my goal was to pare down my collection 😂
. . . 😭
I’m usually forgiving about all of that, and was in this case as well. It was a fun book. Kept my interest throughout. You meet sentient crystals, a machine that can synthesize anything, and a host of other cool things. Some cool ideas are introduced in here as well, like addiction to devices (this was written in 91, so a bit forward thinking here).
I may read other books in the series, and definitely plan to read more work from this author in the future. Probably not for a while though. I have two plastic bags of books from sales now. When I started reading more last year, my goal was to pare down my collection 😂
. . . 😭
February 22, 2022
I wanted to get to it last week but got delayed. But here it is, 3 of 4 of the Bruce Coville Teacher Alien saga! When we last left off, Bully Duncan got smart and then Peter showed up along with Broxholm to wrap him up in a voyage to space to show Earth is worth saving. This time Peter is our narrator.
We start whee we last left off, but Susan wants to know what Peter has been doing in the few months he's been gone, as he hitched a ride out of here at the end of the first book. With that, we flash back at this story is basically just a mid-quel for most of it. We go back to when he first hitched the ride and what he was up to between books 1 and 2, as well as during and up to the end of book 2. Bruce has said the last two books were meant to be 1 at first but split it up and it does show.
This is basically Part 1 of the finale, and it doesn't have much of a plot. It's mostly about him learning about these aliens and all that, not much in the way of action or the big stuff from the other ones. That's the main thing people could take issue with, it's mostly just exposition.
But honestly, I quite liked it. I tend to not care for more lax stories when done badly but this is a good example of it. We get a lot of world building stuff as we meet various aliens and see a lot of cool tech. The pacing is good as we don't spend too long on certain things. There's only a couple bits I'd say are pure filler here and there.
There's creativity in the descriptions and fun sci-fi ideas. Character wise, Peter works as our narrator as it he again shows how tragic he is. We get why he left Earth but by the end he sees he must vouch for it as well. He strikes a friendship with an alien named Hoo-lan. He's not super deep but it's hinted we'll find out more next time and their whole thing is nice, especially when we get to the end with what goes on.
He plays the teacher role, and the way the title and cover comes in is a bit forced but not a big deal. As for the deeper stuff, we mainly repeat what we got before as they go over how this alien UN is figuring out how to deal with Earth given how it is. They go into our crimes and yeah it's pretty real. I can only imagine what the last book will do as that will have the big debate.
Granted, I have a hard time buying every other alien is amazing in perfect, I mean some have to be some kind of warrior race. Sure, anyone who thinks of possibly genociding a planet isn't super great but in other regards there's none of our problems.
Either way it is interesting stuff. It ends on a solid cliffhanger as we get back to the present. It's the most well rounded of these so far, and I quite enjoyed seeing all these details. The plot may be lax but the rest makes up for it. The other were stronger in their plots but this still worked in a lot of ways.
It's only half of a story, but it's a solid half. Overall, a good setup for our finale of this saga. How will it go down? Are we doomed? Will the teacher flunk the planet? Find out whenever I get to it, which will hopefully be sooner than later.
See ya then. Oh and next random read will be closing out the ripoff series cycle I think.
We start whee we last left off, but Susan wants to know what Peter has been doing in the few months he's been gone, as he hitched a ride out of here at the end of the first book. With that, we flash back at this story is basically just a mid-quel for most of it. We go back to when he first hitched the ride and what he was up to between books 1 and 2, as well as during and up to the end of book 2. Bruce has said the last two books were meant to be 1 at first but split it up and it does show.
This is basically Part 1 of the finale, and it doesn't have much of a plot. It's mostly about him learning about these aliens and all that, not much in the way of action or the big stuff from the other ones. That's the main thing people could take issue with, it's mostly just exposition.
But honestly, I quite liked it. I tend to not care for more lax stories when done badly but this is a good example of it. We get a lot of world building stuff as we meet various aliens and see a lot of cool tech. The pacing is good as we don't spend too long on certain things. There's only a couple bits I'd say are pure filler here and there.
There's creativity in the descriptions and fun sci-fi ideas. Character wise, Peter works as our narrator as it he again shows how tragic he is. We get why he left Earth but by the end he sees he must vouch for it as well. He strikes a friendship with an alien named Hoo-lan. He's not super deep but it's hinted we'll find out more next time and their whole thing is nice, especially when we get to the end with what goes on.
He plays the teacher role, and the way the title and cover comes in is a bit forced but not a big deal. As for the deeper stuff, we mainly repeat what we got before as they go over how this alien UN is figuring out how to deal with Earth given how it is. They go into our crimes and yeah it's pretty real. I can only imagine what the last book will do as that will have the big debate.
Granted, I have a hard time buying every other alien is amazing in perfect, I mean some have to be some kind of warrior race. Sure, anyone who thinks of possibly genociding a planet isn't super great but in other regards there's none of our problems.
Either way it is interesting stuff. It ends on a solid cliffhanger as we get back to the present. It's the most well rounded of these so far, and I quite enjoyed seeing all these details. The plot may be lax but the rest makes up for it. The other were stronger in their plots but this still worked in a lot of ways.
It's only half of a story, but it's a solid half. Overall, a good setup for our finale of this saga. How will it go down? Are we doomed? Will the teacher flunk the planet? Find out whenever I get to it, which will hopefully be sooner than later.
See ya then. Oh and next random read will be closing out the ripoff series cycle I think.
January 27, 2009
Covers the same time span as My Teacher Fried My Brians only now we find out what happened to Peter when he left for outer space. This does mean the book loops back to the ending of My Teacher Fried My Brians but, the loop is handled pretty well.
Spoiler Alert:
The book does contain some good philosophy of about why humans are so messed up. Covers the same ground as Alan Dean Foster covered in many of his books. Of course Alan Dean Foster was writing for adults and is a sci-fi writer so the books are higher quality. My problem with this series is that although Coville has some good ideas they are not fresh to me. He also spoils the stories in going to far out there. Removal of a brain! Even Classic Trek couldn't pull that idea off. Then there are the creations of the aliens. It seems that Coville just decides what would sound weird and makes that an alien. Again I use to read sci-fi and I'm use to the idea that an alien should fit his/hers function and personality. For example Alan Dean Foster created a cat like alien to be his second best warrior. A blob like alien who didn't think of indivduality was the enemy. Along with meaningless aliens is that the devices they use are more fantasy creations that scientific. Beside the main idea the humans are strange creatures and need to get it together everything else in the series is what I refer to as junk sci-fi -a fantasy trying to pretend it is a sci-fi and becoming neither. HG Wells is the only who could manage this idea well I think.
A fun read but, one I wouldn't recommend for sci-fi book reports not that there is a lot out there. Need more HM Hoover. Coville it seems should stick to fantasy.
Spoiler Alert:
The book does contain some good philosophy of about why humans are so messed up. Covers the same ground as Alan Dean Foster covered in many of his books. Of course Alan Dean Foster was writing for adults and is a sci-fi writer so the books are higher quality. My problem with this series is that although Coville has some good ideas they are not fresh to me. He also spoils the stories in going to far out there. Removal of a brain! Even Classic Trek couldn't pull that idea off. Then there are the creations of the aliens. It seems that Coville just decides what would sound weird and makes that an alien. Again I use to read sci-fi and I'm use to the idea that an alien should fit his/hers function and personality. For example Alan Dean Foster created a cat like alien to be his second best warrior. A blob like alien who didn't think of indivduality was the enemy. Along with meaningless aliens is that the devices they use are more fantasy creations that scientific. Beside the main idea the humans are strange creatures and need to get it together everything else in the series is what I refer to as junk sci-fi -a fantasy trying to pretend it is a sci-fi and becoming neither. HG Wells is the only who could manage this idea well I think.
A fun read but, one I wouldn't recommend for sci-fi book reports not that there is a lot out there. Need more HM Hoover. Coville it seems should stick to fantasy.
May 17, 2007
This is the first Bruce Coville book I knew about. My 2nd grade teacher read it to us and after that I wanted every book he ever wrote... I still go back to read them occaisionally, they're fun, quick reads.
May 31, 2025
Coville's My Teacher is an Alien series is so good - this might be my favorite one of the series so far. I love how each book is told from the perspective of a different character.
September 9, 2018
I recalled losing interest in the series with book three and it is the same this time around. Peter's part of the story is not that interesting as Coville fails to make the aliens very interesting beyond them being hypocrites. They basically think "your planet so so violent we need to blow it up!" It reminds me of protesters talking about love while throwing rocks. Coville though hardly plays up that part, which is the problem of maintaining peace through strength. It also reminds one of extremists who, although they can see the intelligence of their opponents, think they are so dangerous they must be exterminated or at least controlled. To understand that, consider the actions of Mao or your average slave-owner who thinks they are "civilizing" their chattel.
The more personal message of the book is "people care about you" and "learn to express your feelings." This is pretty standard stuff from the 1990s and even today. The other caveat is that if you are intelligent you will be liberal/left on issues, one of the more persistent and debilitating myths among liberals and leftists.
Still, it was an easy read, with great scifi moments, such as Peter's getting telepathy. The ending made me want to read the final book, but to be fair so too did the end of the superior My Teacher Fried My Brains and this one was fairly disappointing or to be more fair extremely average.
The more personal message of the book is "people care about you" and "learn to express your feelings." This is pretty standard stuff from the 1990s and even today. The other caveat is that if you are intelligent you will be liberal/left on issues, one of the more persistent and debilitating myths among liberals and leftists.
Still, it was an easy read, with great scifi moments, such as Peter's getting telepathy. The ending made me want to read the final book, but to be fair so too did the end of the superior My Teacher Fried My Brains and this one was fairly disappointing or to be more fair extremely average.
February 24, 2008
Bruve Coville delivers yet again, another book that is perfect for entertaining the young adult genre. I found this at my book library for .25 cents, so I had to pick it up. I'm glad I read it, took me back to middle school when I read his other works.
May 11, 2010
it was a good book because its about this kid that is a human and his teacher is an alien and he can glow in the dark so he knows that he is a alien and askes him if he can go with him to the galaxy and he said yes so he meets weird aliens and passes down to a big journey
September 13, 2008
Fun books. :3
Not really good, but fun.
Not really good, but fun.
June 6, 2009
I vaguely remember liking this book and recalling that it added to my developing view of people.
June 26, 2009
The series is gripping enough that I will probably finish the quartet.
February 15, 2015
Cute, geared to up to about age 10 or 11. #3 in a series, but a fun read even if you haven't read the first 2. Read in about an hour and a half.
December 9, 2024
Bruce Coville is one of my favorite authors. So imaginative and uplifting. Most of all, it really is fun and I liked the characters.
July 25, 2023
Hell yeah.
February 2, 2023
My favorite in the series so far. Not much in terms of plot, but I liked that about it; mostly it was just a boy on a spaceship. Also Bruce Coville has some really great xenodiversity, definitely some of the best I’ve seen in a kids’ series.
September 5, 2025
I started reading books because of quiet reading time with my 2nd grade teacher, and because she read the book My Teacher is an Alien - a serious piece of science fiction literature that rattled me to my core. It was a pleasure to return to the series after seeing them displayed at Half Price Books. How can you not purchase a book with this cover let's be honest.
A great back-to-school season read (even though I'm not in school anymore). And HOW did Coville know to include a creature called a Rhoomba. Coville is on the same brainwaves as the people that wrote the Simpsons.
A great back-to-school season read (even though I'm not in school anymore). And HOW did Coville know to include a creature called a Rhoomba. Coville is on the same brainwaves as the people that wrote the Simpsons.
March 31, 2021
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.
September 11, 2017
I'll be honest, I didn't finish this book when I was younger (3rd/4th grade). And I'm not sure why. It is an excellent addition to the series.
This book follows Peter in his time immediately after he runs off with Broxholm and his adventures on the spaceship New Jersey. While on board, he meets a variety of aliens from all over the universe.
Peter has always wanted to go to space but his trip up to the stars isn't going exactly how he thought. First he was stripped naked. Sure he got his eyes fixed and got a translator installed that allows him to communicate with those onboard the ship but it is still a little embarrassing to be naked in front of strangers (alien strangers).
Space jumps are horrible, making Peter nauseous every time they happen. But while he is exploring, he makes a few friends and learns exactly what Broxholm's mission was. And now Peter knows his planet is on the verge of being destroyed.
Its odd how much of the book still fits the times. We still are a world full of smart people who have wars and let people starve. I would hope that some day kids reading this book have no idea what any of that was but I highly doubt it.
Looking forward to finishing out this series!
This book follows Peter in his time immediately after he runs off with Broxholm and his adventures on the spaceship New Jersey. While on board, he meets a variety of aliens from all over the universe.
Peter has always wanted to go to space but his trip up to the stars isn't going exactly how he thought. First he was stripped naked. Sure he got his eyes fixed and got a translator installed that allows him to communicate with those onboard the ship but it is still a little embarrassing to be naked in front of strangers (alien strangers).
Space jumps are horrible, making Peter nauseous every time they happen. But while he is exploring, he makes a few friends and learns exactly what Broxholm's mission was. And now Peter knows his planet is on the verge of being destroyed.
Its odd how much of the book still fits the times. We still are a world full of smart people who have wars and let people starve. I would hope that some day kids reading this book have no idea what any of that was but I highly doubt it.
Looking forward to finishing out this series!
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April 27, 2022This is easily one of my all-time favorite books. I remember reading it as an elementary student and I felt the same waves of emotion, wonder, and deeper curiosity with the universe as I read it with my third grader. In some ways, it's misleading to think of this simply as a read for younger audiences, if only because it hits on a perfect balance of science fiction and philosophy for older audiences as well. Of course, I have the advantage of seeing its linkages with other seminal works in the scifi canon (like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which has common thematic and plot elements). I remember this as one of the first books that really piqued my intellectual curiosity about the intersection of technology, science, humanity, philosophy, and early adolescence... and I'm hearing hints in the conversation I have with my oldest (as we read it together) that are trending toward the same curiosities and wonder I had at his age. I find myself remembering how much I loved this book and how much it primed me to appreciate the deeper level of sometimes absurd, ironic, and always probing humor in other classics like Hitchhiker's Guide. In short, I love this book and love the spark it reignited in me and creates in younger audiences.
July 13, 2021
This was my favorite book in the series when I was a kid (probably 3rd grade). My own kids (4 and 6) loved the first book in the series and really liked the second one. This book was a little much for them to follow along with at this point as it takes a turn into outer space politics, teleportation and telepathy. There's also a lot of characters talking about wars, hunger and violence on Earth, and thankfully my kids are a little sheltered and didn't have much of a reference as to what those issues really mean.
The narrator is Peter in this book, the little boy who left with Broxholm at the end of book one.
He's catching up Susan and Duncan on everything that's happened since he left Earth. My kids were expecting the story to pick up where book two ended, so that disappointed them a bit as well. They're still excited to finish up book four (the last book in the series) and I'm sure we'lll get started on it soon. I'm giving it four stars, because it's not the book's fault my kids are too young and impatient to fully appreciate it!
The narrator is Peter in this book, the little boy who left with Broxholm at the end of book one.
He's catching up Susan and Duncan on everything that's happened since he left Earth. My kids were expecting the story to pick up where book two ended, so that disappointed them a bit as well. They're still excited to finish up book four (the last book in the series) and I'm sure we'lll get started on it soon. I'm giving it four stars, because it's not the book's fault my kids are too young and impatient to fully appreciate it!
April 29, 2010
Sayang ini buku yang ketiga. Setelah selesai membacanya aku jadi kepengin baca dari buku pertama. Lumayan menarik ceritanya. Lumayan seru dan penuh imajinasi. Alien-alien-nya selain aneh dalam segi wujud, gesture mereka juga aneh-aneh. Sayang sampai akhir buku aku masih nggak ngerti kenapa Hoo Lan jadi sakit setelah berusaha bertelepati dengan Peter a.k.a Krepta. Mungkin di buku selanjutnya dibahas?
Aku juga nggak ngerti kenapa Peter sebel cenderung benci pada ayahnya. Mungkin di buku pertama dan kedua dibahas?
Satu lagi yang aku sayangkan, aku membaca versi ebook tanpa ilustrasi :D padahal aku bayangkan ilustrasinya seru.
Kalau serial Ramona cocok untuk bacaan anak-anak cewek karena manisnya cerita, seri ini cocok untuk bacaan anak-anak cowok karena unsur petualangan dan humornya.
Aku juga nggak ngerti kenapa Peter sebel cenderung benci pada ayahnya. Mungkin di buku pertama dan kedua dibahas?
Satu lagi yang aku sayangkan, aku membaca versi ebook tanpa ilustrasi :D padahal aku bayangkan ilustrasinya seru.
Kalau serial Ramona cocok untuk bacaan anak-anak cewek karena manisnya cerita, seri ini cocok untuk bacaan anak-anak cowok karena unsur petualangan dan humornya.
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July 29, 2020I bought this book at the scholastic book fair, which for a budding book worm was the greatest day of the school year.
And I thought it was hilarious when I would read it in class for silent reading, trying to catch my teachers eye and then quickly glancing at the cover of the book that I held high at eye level instead of flat on my desk like my peers.
And I thought it was hilarious when I would read it in class for silent reading, trying to catch my teachers eye and then quickly glancing at the cover of the book that I held high at eye level instead of flat on my desk like my peers.
November 9, 2017
The third in a great kid's series "My teacher is an Alien" quartet. A fun read. As well as, showing that different doesn't mean scary, bad, nasty, horrible. But, can mean opportunities, change for the better, growth/learning.
January 22, 2018
Really enjoy this series. This was the most challenging to read as all set in space, so nothing to ground the descriptions. Peter not as engaging narrator as Duncan or Susan but still a really good book.
August 21, 2012
It was great, but it somewhat unsatisfying.
March 23, 2017
It was an okay book but at the start of it I was very confused at what was happening.
March 27, 2018
J’en garde un assez mauvais souvenir. Déjà enfant, la science-fiction ne me convenait pas!
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