Bruce Coville’s My Teacher Glows in the Dark is a funny space adventure for 8 year olds about a boy who runs away to the stars with an alien.<\/p>\n
Peter Thompson has just helped a green-skinned alien called Broxholm escape from his school. Broxholm had been pretending to be a substitute teacher, and now he’s heading home. Peter wants to go with him.<\/p>\n
He hasn’t got much to stay for. The other kids pick on him for being clever and his dad doesn’t seem to care whether he’s there or not. More than anything, he’s always wanted to visit other planets. So he goes.<\/p>\n
This isn’t where the My Teacher books begin. Peter’s friends Susan and Duncan have already told their side, and now it’s his turn to explain what happened after he left. The first chapter sums up enough that a new reader won’t be lost, but it does give away how the earlier adventure ends.<\/p>\n
Life on the enormous alien ship is brilliantly weird. It’s the size of New Jersey (one of the crew named it that on purpose). Peter gets disinfected by a laser that slices off every stitch of his clothing, wakes up with a translator fitted in his brain and meets a captain who is a tank full of slowly moving crystals. He doesn’t need his glasses any more either, because the alien doctor fixed his eyes while it was poking around in there!<\/p>\n
Then there’s Hoo-Lan, a short blue alien in baggy red shorts who glows in the dark and cheerfully admits he’s the biggest troublemaker on the ship. He gives Peter a new name, Krepta, which means Child of the Stars.<\/p>\n
The silly bits sit next to some bigger ideas. The aliens think Earth is dangerous and are deciding whether to shut it off from the rest of the galaxy. Peter feels embarrassed for his whole planet. It could start a good chat about why people fight.<\/p>\n
There’s a lot of feeling in Peter’s story too. He cries when the ship lifts off and he spots Susan down below, and he isn’t sure he can really let go of his old name. If you’ve got a reader who sometimes feels they don’t quite fit, they’ll probably find a friend in Peter.<\/p>\n
If it’s the mix-up between humans and aliens they love, try My Life as a Cat. This time an alien comes to Earth hoping to be a human for a month and ends up as a cat instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bruce Coville’s My Teacher Glows in the Dark is a funny space adventure for 8 year olds about a boy who runs away to the stars with an alien. Peter Thompson has just helped a green-skinned alien called Broxholm escape from his school. Broxholm had been pretending to be a substitute teacher, and now he’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12215,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8194,"lr_next_read_anchor":"My Life as a Cat","lr_seo_hook":"A bullied boy leaves Earth on an alien ship the size of New Jersey."},"book_tag":[1046],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[155],"class_list":["post-8204","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-sci-fi-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-bruce-coville"],"yoast_title":"My Teacher Glows in the Dark by Bruce Coville | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A bullied boy leaves Earth on an alien ship the size of New Jersey. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n