The Teacher from the Black Lagoon

Black Lagoon #1

by Mike Thaler, Jared Lee (Illustrator)

An outrageously funny tale of how rumors can make a student create a monster out of any teacher! Two popular books from the bestselling Black Lagoon series--TEACHER and LIBRARIAN--are now reissued with fun new covers! Join Hubie once again as he faces his comically horrific fears during his first day of school and his first trip to the school library. Featuring a fire-breathing teacher and a library where all the books are bolted to the shelves, these stories are sure to amuse and quell fears of new experiences at the same time!

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Humor, Fiction, School, Fantasy, Horror

32 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1989

About the author

Mike Thaler, born in Los Angeles, started his professional career drawing cartoons for adults. A children's book editor saw one of his cartoon stories in a national magazine and encouraged Mike to try writing for children. His first attempt met with success, and "The Magic Boy" was published in 1961.

Mike has produced over 220 published books and is known as “America’s Riddle King.” He has also been called “The Court Jester of Children’s Literature.”

Mike Thaler lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Patty. He gladly welcomes all invitations to do church and school programs, and other book events.

Mike travels each year throughout the world helping children and teachers create their own stories, riddles, and books. He writes and teaches with creativity, inspiring his audiences with a love of language.

--from the author's website

Reviews

[James]

the teacher from the black lagoon is a definitely a book for children. i believe children from pre school to 5th grade would enjoy the book. the book is mostly talking about the different types of teachers in the school. this was a good book with a late of illustration. this book to me wasn't that challenging but reading it to understand what the read is always good

[madeline ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so out of packet.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever.

[Regina Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Text-To-Teaching

I would use this book to help my students understand that teachers are not as bad as they imagine us to be. Before reading the book i would have a discussion with my kids to ask them what they think of teachers and what do they think THIS teacher would be like. I would read students this book and ask questions like "do you guys think the teacher is as mean as he thinks?" or something along those lines to get them to explore the possibilities. after reading the book we will discuss and compare the thoughts of teachers before the book and the thoughts after.

[babyhippoface · Rating 4 out of 5]

Need a last-minute book to read during the first days of a new school year? Grab one of Thaler's Black Lagoon books. They saved my life today.

Yes, I know, as an elementary librarian, I should have read this series years ago. I just never got around to it. Today--crazy day--2nd grade is walking in for their first story time and I am doing the headless chicken routine, so in desperation I grab this book and Miss Nelson is Missing. Again, yes, I know you should never read a book to a class when you've not previewed it. But I trusted Mike Thaler completely, boy, did he come through!

The kids were paying attention, giggling, saying to themselves, "Our teacher's not like that!" and when I was done the kids checked out all the Miss Nelson books and several from this series.

Win.

[Shelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son who is a reluctant reader discovered this series of books while in First Grade. Between First and Second Grade he read every book in this series MANY times!!!!

[Courtney Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book as a kid. I found that it was humorous and just a excellent book. I love all the illustrations in the book as well as the story line.

[Bianca Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Teacher from the Black Lagoon starts off with a boy on his way to school wondering who his teacher will be this coming year. When he looks at who he has, he realizes he has a teacher whose reputation deems her as a monster. Then Mrs. Green comes in and she looks like a big scary crocodile. One student throws a spit ball as a joke and she turns him into ash with her fire breathe. Another student makes fun of her breathe and she picks his head off and uses it as her new globe. As students begin to get picked off one by one because they do something she does not like, our main boy is wishing he was in the principal’s office rather than in class. As he begins to drift off because it is naptime, he is startled when he awakes because it had all been just a dream. He then goes to give her a hug because he realizes how happy he is to be in this class as opposed to the horrible one he dreamt of.

The theme of this book is overcoming the first day of school anxiety. All children have moments where they are afraid to go to their first day of school whether it be because they want to make friends, wanting a good neighbor to sit next to, or in this case hoping you’re in a good class with a nice teacher. This book uses humor and exaggeration to make students feel comfortable about going to school because nothing would be worse than having a scary crocodile as your teacher.

Personally, I loved this book and I forgot how funny it is. I loved it so much I continued to read its book series, each with a different teaching position in a school. I thought the animations were fun to look at and I remember people questioning why I liked it because it “looks like a boys book” but I loved it just the same. I went to the same school for 15 years so I never had the first day of school jitters but this book still made me appreciate the nice teachers I did have.

I recommend this book for a second through third grade level because the content can be a little graphic for younger viewers even though you never see blood or gore. Also, I think it is just one of those fun books you read to get yourself into reading and that your classmates pass around because they think it is also funny. I think it does a good job at closing that transition gap for new students so even a first grade level could be appropriate since that can be when a student shifts to a bigger elementary school and could have that anxiety of going to a new school.

[Erica Robyn Metcalf · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Teacher from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler, illustrated by Jared Lee is a humorous tale about the rumors kids have passed around and the fear about the first day of school where everything is new.

These books were another staple from my childhood! I remember really loving the silliness of these tales as a kid. Granted, I read these in a time where our principal would threaten to, "string you up by your toes and hang you from the basketball hoops" if we were misbehaving, so my sense of what was okay to joke about and what was not may have already been a little skewed.

I think the tales would be a fun read for a kid that may be a little nervous about their first day as it would help them see that there isn't anything to worry about.

In this tale, our main character is off to his first day of school. He's nervous about who his teacher will be. Before class, he's so exhausted that he shuts his eyes. The next thing he knows, Mrs Green walks in and she's a real monster!

She does very scary things to each of the kids in class ranging from dismembering them, to biting one of them in half. Granted, this is written in a very humorous way that most kids will laugh at, it could be a bit much for some readers.

But good news! It was all a dream. The real Mrs Green walks into the classroom, startling our main character awake and boy is he relieved to see her!

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

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. Young readers are familiar with the 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

[Brittani · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first day of school can be as scary as you think, especially when the rumors are circling that this school is filled with monster like creatures. On this boy’s first day of school, he falls asleep and dreams that he is in the most haunting teachers classroom this year and she is as scary as it comes. She so scary that she’s practically from the black lagoon. He is happy to know, then when he wakes up, he finds that his real teacher isn’t so scary, but actually a nice lady. I would read this book to my students on the first day of school, in our conversation about our expectations about how the first day of school was going to go. Students might think it’s funny that the little boy thought his teacher was a monster, and who knows, maybe my students thought I was going to be a monster too. I would have this in an younger elementary classroom, but it might be funny to use in older class, because no matter how old you get, the first day of school can always be frightening.

[Kainat Rehman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This really funny and intruiging books is about A kid who confronts his fear about the first day of school in this hilariuos story. After hearing scary and horrific stories about teachers, He then dreams about his "monster" teacher Mrs. Green and the really weird and bad things she does to students in the school. When he wakes up from his nightmare, he then realizes that the real Mrs. Green is actually a really nice humble teacher and not what he imagained. It is great for kids who have a fea fro school to show its not all that bad. I dont like the art style, for me its too messy and the4story itself for me is a standars almsot boring book. I am not into these kinds, but for kids its good because it creative and really funny and esecially when he thinks his teachers are scary ooking monsters. a good lesson plan would be to read the story and while we read the stufent to write down everytjing. That includes the charcters, setting,plot, beginning, middle and end.

[Nicole Raabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

1)Awards: None

2) Age Range: Prekindergarten through 3rd grade

3) Summary: Mrs. Green is a mean, dragon, fire breathing teacher that scares her class with her antics. She replaces the globe with a boy's head, shrinks the head of a little girl requesting to go to the nurse. and gobbles up another boy. A young boy dreams this horror, and when he wakes up he discovers that Mrs. Green is actually a nice and beautiful teacher.

4) Review: I LOVED this series in 3rd and 4th grade. I think a lot of students on every grade level can relate as we all hear things about teachers that we discover are exaggerated. It causes fear until we discover the truth for ourselves. I would read this to my students.

5) In class use:
-Teaching about key details in a text
-read in the beginning of the year to welcome students to the classroom

[Luis Flores · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is about a kid who is starting a new school year and he is worried who he might get. He realizes that he got the worse teacher of all, an actual monster. The kid goes to class, and the teacher walks in things get worse. The teacher looks like a dragon wearing clothes and a wig. Just when we thought things were already bad she assigns a lot of homework on the first day on fractions, which the students have not learned yet. The teacher then starts to eat, burn, swallowed, and take the head of the students who misbehave and ask questions. The kid then falls asleep and wakes up to a different teacher, who looks nicer, and prettier. The visuals in this picture book appear to be drawn by color pencil. I personally grew up reading these books so I give it 5 stars because of the memories.

[Emmy Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book when I first started reading. I think it's a hilarious way of showing what overthinking can do to a person. I relate to the book even today when I'm overthinking. This book is about a boy who thinks his teacher will be a monster and the most evil creature. It shows how scary the first day of school can be He discovers that his teacher will be Mrs. Green who he has heard rumors of before and the worst teacher of them all. He's heard that Mrs. Green has a tail and breathes fire. When he awakes from his sleep and meets Mrs. Green he realizes that she is in fact very nice and forgets about all his fears about school. The theme of this book is to not believe everything you hear and don't judge a. ook by its cover. I recommend this book to any student who is startn=ing school soon or a new reader who enjoys funny books.

[Hannah Shelby · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Teacher From the Black Lagoon is written by Mike Thaler and Illustrated by Jared Lee. This book is about a student who is going to school on the first day and he has heard bad things about all the teachers but he really doesn’t want Mrs. Green who he says is supposed to be a monster. He ends up getting her and goes to her classroom. She ends up being an actual monster who eats the children, blows fire, and turns them into frogs. She then tells the students to take a nap and when the little boy wakes up Mrs. Green is a normal nice teacher. I used to be obsessed with this series as a kid and i still think it is so creative and fun and good way to get kids to not be afraid of coming to school and getting a new teacher. I also think the illustrations are so descriptive and capture the humor the author is trying to portray.I think this is a perfect book for younger students.

[Lauren Paravate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: A boy is going to his first day of school and realizes that his teacher is Mrs.Green who is suppose to be a mean teacher who is a monster. At the end of the story he realizes that he was scared for no reason and his teacher is a nice woman who is happy that he is there.

Evaluation: This is a great book that will keep students laughing at every page. I love the story line and the deeper meaning of the text because it is so relatable.

Teaching Idea: I would use this book on the first week of school and discuss how everyone is scared for their first day. I would have the students talk about why they were nervous and why they don't need to be. I would also use this book to explain what an exaggeration is and have students point out different ones in the text.

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of my all time favorite children's books. It is something of a nostalgia read for me because I was first introduced to this story when I was in elementary school myself. These days I'm reading this book to the children in my pre-k class. One of the reasons I love this book so much is the fact that it really shows the exaggeration of a child's mind. The little boy in this story has only heard stories of the teacher and from those stories he let his imagination sore all the way to the depths of the black lagoon. The very least, this book teaches children to not be so scared of the unknown, it usually ends up being way worse in our heads than it is in actuality. This book sits high on my list of childhood stories I choose to share with a new generation.

[Andrea Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

The boy in the first day of school is extremely nervous about the teacher Mrs. Green. Throughout the story he tries to survive on the first day of school. Eventually, he wakes up and realizes it’s all a nightmare. I really like how the suspense was being built from the very beginning of the book. Phrasing the story in the first person makes it very relatable to students who’ve been scared to show up to school on the first day of class. I was pretty shocked in the end that it was all a dream for the character. It was a funny story considering how absurd this nightmare is for the student. For a split second I didn’t think the students would survive the wrath of Mrs. Green. I really enjoyed the ending because I could see how relieved the student was to find out it was only a nightmare.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of those favorites of mine as a kid that I just recently re-read after 30 years and it still holds up really well. It's about a boy who fears this teacher, Miss Green, on his first day of school and goes into how horrible she is (I mean, she's a claw, sharp-toothed, crocodile who likes to turn kids into ashes and shrink their heads, etc. It's very clever and fun. I highly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys more outrageous dark humor. I had no idea this was part of a series. The Teacher from the Black Lagoon (1989) by Mike Thaler, illustrated by Jared Lee. Look out for Miss Greeh, she's a real monster! My rating - 5/5

[Ms. Layton + the Fearless Leaders · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was good, but the teacher, she was really strict. I am happy I don't have a teacher like that. - DT

I liked the book very much, but some books are the same. - ACS

The teacher was mean, and if we have a teacher like that, the first one to go would be me because I can't be quiet. - SS

The teacher, Mrs. Green, the evil one, she looked like she fresh came out of the sewer. - RML
Maybe cause she did. - ACS

Can we please teach fractions like that? Cause I'd be the first one. - RML

I'm glad that our teacher is the best and better than that. Fractions with humans is not her thing. - JC

[Levi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read. I have read it before, but today I read it to my kindergarten students. This provides some really great examples of complete sentences and exhibits a range of good vocabulary for students to become familiar with. Also, the action words are great to perform and allows for some interaction with students. They loved the story, the actions, and my questions about what they thought came next for each student. It was a fun read!

[Daniella Delgado · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. n/a
2. pre-k- 3rd
3. This book is about a boy who dreams his teacher as a scary monster. He is nervous about school but after realizing it was just a dream, he feels better about going to school.
4. This book was easy to read and very interesting. The pictures were well illustrated and unique.
5. Transitions, independent reading, stress about new grade.

[Gabriella Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rowdy classroom's teacher goes missing. In return, they get a scary strict substitute teacher. The children begin to worry about what happened to their teacher after she is gone for a long time. They begin to investigate. One day, she returns. The children are thrilled to see her and are considerably more obedient.

[Chelsie Mahaffey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great book for children to read. I think this book is great for the imagination, since it is about a child dreaming. Some children may see things in the classroom that the young child in the book dreams about (which is kind of weird). I think this would help children get over the fear of school as well.

[Kris Dersch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't remember when I first read this, but I grabbed it from the library this week because my husband never has and read it to the family. It's still cute, it's still funny, but sadly doesn't hold up as well as I wanted it to. The artwork is adorable and it will definitely please but the ending is unsatisfying. I think picture books have just gotten better since this era.

[Ali Book&Seaglasshunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many kids worry about what their new teacher will be like, or hear h settling rumors before the first day of school. This is a pretty humorous take on the worst case scenario of a truly monster teacher. Definitely could be scary or anxiety provoking for certain children. My preschool age son found it to be a little scary, but in the good scary kind of way.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like my review of the other ‘black lagoon’ book, I think this book would be good for any anxious over thinkers who get nervous about first day of school. School can be scary, but your teacher will never be a magic wielding, 8 foot tall, fire breathing dragon! I also really liked the designs in the book, something very flattering about this art style. I’d recommend this for ages 7 and up.

[Kaylee Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I personally find this book a great read to help kids understand that their teachers will not be as bad as they think. It can be scary getting a new teacher so it is understandable for students to create a scary image in their head of what their teacher may look like and how they might act. This book is a great read to get students out of their scared mindsets about their new teachers.

[Cherlynn | cherreading · Rating 3 out of 5]

That escalated quickly. Like really quickly.

[Apparently a childhood classic, according to a Buzzfeed listicle, but unfortunately I have never read it until now. Still, better late than never!]