Grade Level: 6th to 8th

This science fiction book is about an alien that comes to Earth, poses as a teacher, and has a plan to abduct students for study. The main character, Susan, discovers he is an alien and the book unfolds with her attempting to foil the aliens plan. The book is not very long, but very easy to read. The dialogue includes internal monologue from the main character.

This book can be used to discuss unlikely friends (Peter and Susan), the possibility of aliens, or the process of More...

This book single-handedly made me fall in love with science fiction when I was in fourth grade (thanks, Mr. Juhas!). I reread this book dozens of times as a kid, but reread it for the first time in more than a decade over the last couple of nights.

One of the things I'd forgotten was that this book is written from the perspective of a sixth grade girl named Susan. In my opinion, her gender wasn't all that important to the story, but it's interesting to note that Coville chose to write from a gir More...

Susan knows there is something fishy about her teacher Mr. Smith, but she doesn't know what.When she was alone at the school,she hears a noise. She follows it down an empty hallway into a bathroom. Then she saw him peel the skin off his face and reveal his alien scales! Then,there was a flashing light in the mirror;an alien face shows in the mirror. The alien started to talk to "Mr. Smith" in their language about "getting the kids." How was she going to escape without him hearing or seeing her, More...

This is another of those books that I think kids will like more than I do. It involves 6th graders, and I'd say 6th grade is the upper end of the range of most interested readers. It's an easy read, with short chapters, lots of repetition and a plot that is not too complex. Struggling readers may appreciate this. Susan Simmons and Peter are interesting characters, and even the school bully, Duncan, is not as flat as some. That's one of the more interesting themes of the book: defining people acc More...

1.I love this book. It`s very interesting. for example, on page 93. When Duncan,Peter and Susan was spying on Mr.Smith. Duncan went in a room and saw a breif case. He opened it and he started to scream very loud because an alien head poped up and started to talk in a weird language. Another is that on page 51. When Peter and Susan was in the middle of the attic. They saw Ms.Schwartz frozen in a rectangular see through box.
2. I would reccommend this book to my brother Mohamed. I would reccommend More...

To be clear, I think this is a good science fiction book. It's just a bit elementary for my personal taste.

I read this book because I had my students read it. We needed something light from a different genre (we've been heavy into realistic modern fiction lately).

It's been a hit in class. The students are passing the quizzes related to it. Many of them went on to complete the book on their own, even knowing we'd continue reading aloud in class. One student even went to the library to pick up a More...

Peter and Susan knew that there was something suspicious about their new teacher Mr. Smith. When they did an investigation by following their teacher home. Eventually they found out that their teacher is an alien and planning to kidnap a certain number of kids in the class that he is teaching. So they find a way to reveal the true identity of Mr. Smith in front of the whole school. So Susan plays the trumpet to make the alien suffer from one of aliens' most hated noises. After a while, Mr. Smith More...

This was one of my favorite books as a kid and I’m pleased to see students continue to check it out, as well as Coville’s newer books. It held up on re-read much better than expected – it’s really a suspenseful and well crafted story. Good use of the evil teacher trope. Mr. Smith has some very creepy standoffs with Susan as he stays in character as their teacher. Trying to balance supernatural threat with the pressure of daily life is always a great lens for the experience of being young - I lik More...

The first "encounter" har har, I had with this book was in my fourth grade class. It was read to the entire class by our teacher. It's the story of a few kids discovering their substitute teacher, Mr. Smith har har, is and alien from outer space who has their original teacher locked in a force field in the attic of the house he's renting. It's a young adult book. Just a fun read. There are three sequels to it that lead up to the kids helping the aliens races decide what to do with the seemingly More...

My Teacher Is An Alien
By Bruce Coville

This is the first of the 'My Teacher Is An Alien' series. I actually read this one second after 'My teacher fried my brains' . So this made the second book make a bit more sence.

This story kept me interested thoughout most of the book. I liked how this book was written in the perspective of a sixthed grade girl names Susan. Susan soon descovers the secret of her new teacher Ms Smith. Its a good book and a good series, and i would encourage others to read th More...

I remember reading this book in elementary school. The book was an easy read. Yet, I was extremely restless while reading it. The overall plot of the story is about an alien teacher who wants to analyze the human brain by taking students. The book had its moments, but overall I didn’t feel like it had the special effect to it. I feel that more boys would flock to this book then girls. Majority of boys tend to enjoy books that speak about aliens and brains, and this book definitely does touch on More...

I remember reading this as a kid and really liking it. Last week I had a kid come in for a short fifth grade book for a book report that was due yesterday (yesterday as in the day before he came into the library not yesterday the day I started listening to it. I decided that I should give it a listen for old times sake.

This is still a fun book. Susan and Peter are still really smart and spunky kids. I really didn't notice the lack of cell phones and computers. There's no way the kids would get a More...

The story is pretty good and kids would probably find it entertaining. Might have gave it three stars but, for one major problem - on page 36 Peter's refers to Mr. Smith as Broxholm (his real name) but, there is no way he should know that. Kept reading expecting this mystery to be cleared up but, it isn't. The problem pulled me out of the flow of the story. I expected better from someone of Coville's stature.

Another problem is that twice the pictues give away the plot. You see what is going to h More...

I have had a rough week, and yesterday was a particularly bad day in said rough week. Don't worry, this won't be a blogreads post I just needed to get that out as a reason to get up at 1am and read this and My Teacher Fried My Brains. Coville, like many of the great authors of my childhood, is delicious delicious junk food. These books especially are like the Sour Patch Kids my brother and I would devour until our tongues bled. They're awesome, but you can't taste anything for a week or so after More...

Another nostalgic childhood read that I might have been better off not reading as an adult. It didn't live up to my fond memories (few childhood books do, unfortunately), but it was a very quick read and I found myself enjoying it.

The book is quite dated, and there were numerous times as I was reading it to my husband that we would exchange eye rolls at a particularly corny part. Also, I'm not sure that a kid picking this up today, after having read more recent kid lit, would like it. This book More...

Since this book is about a missing teacher, I would have my third of fourth graders make a missing persons poster for the teacher. The students will be able to use art supplies to decorate their posters, Then I would have them write a paragraph telling why the teacher needs to be found. For this assignment, I would like to teach descriptive writing, so the students would use descriptive words in their paragraphs.

I remember I literally couldn't put this book down. I read it at school. My sixth grade teacher noticed and borrowed it as one of her read out loud to the class books. The whole class loved it and after it was over they carried me around the class on their shoulders. Okay maybe the last part didn't happen but I was seriously popular for weeks cause kids wanted spoilers.

Classic Coville, second only to The Monsters of Morley Manor. Here's a book that combines classroom politics with science fiction adventure. There's one line about the protag's "first period" which I could have done without, but LOL to the author's use of John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever." I can hardly wait to start the sequel!

Oh man had I forgotten about this book, I read it back in Elementary school and really liked it. All I remembered was a quote, "Why do you read so much, why are you such a bookworm?" Duncan asked Peter.
For the cover I remembered it had an alien and a window, there was also a bookworm and a bully and of course the ending I def remember as well.
I couldn't find this anywhere and found it at my library.
I started rereading it and it is a really good story. T
he suspense was also good including the p More...

I liked Bruce Coville so much when I was in fourth grade that I considered him my favorite author, although I preferred his themed anthologies - "Bruce Coville's Book of Aliens"! "Bruce Coville's Book of Ghosts"! "Bruce Coville's Book of Unicorns"! "Bruce Coville's Book of Legendary North American Monsters and Also a Few I Made Up"! YEAH.

This was the first book I tried to challenge Connor with at school. I decided to read it first since he read it for a day or something and then stopped and never started. I can understand why, it's not very compelling. And you never know how the narrator is. It's some girl but she never introduces herself so it's kind of confusing.

I can barely remember this one. I remember that there used to be a bookfare that came to our junior school and I bought this one. I remember liking it but can't remember much else about it... I'm sure the book I got came as a two in one but I don't know.

Not sure if I liked it or not but I did read it a couple of times though.

My Teacher is an Alien would be a funny read for a small group of students doing a literacy circle. I don't know if I would recommend it is as a whole class read, because I wouldn't want the students to talk negatively about other teachers, but I think it would be fun for a smaller group.

i skimmed this book, but it was SO BAD> Bruce Coville created(if that's what you call it) are weird topic I didn't like. Girls would not really like it. Boys would probably love it though. I didn't really enjoy it. Thought I read this like years ago. BAD STUFF. Take my word for it.

So I really didn't have much of a life as a kid, but I remember ploughing through these one summer, probably when I had a twisted ankle and was couch-bound. Looks like he kept writing beyond the years I read him, but these were essential readings at the time. Miss you Scholastic!

I thought the book was good because the teacher was an alien also i thought the book was a little weird because when they put there hand on the force field u can talk to or read there thoughts and i thought that was of course unrealistic. I mean the book was not all that.

What is there to even say? Bruce Coville is the reason I love reading, and the reason I love sf/f in particular. This was the most formative series of my childhood. The first book is pretty light and silly (the end of the series is quite a bit heavier), and utterly delightful.

I totally remember reading this in Elementary school!

I can't remember if I liked it or not, but I remember reading it. The fact that I remember reading it means I will give it the star rating of liked it... because if I hated it in school, I probably wouldn't remember it.

I read this book when I was in Elementary school as one of my reading projects and I loved it! I recommend this to any young child out there that is intrigued by aliens. This is definitely better if it's read by a younger audience or someone just young at heart :P.