Sinister Substitute

The Gecko and Sticky #3

by Wendelin Van Draanen, Stephen Gilpin (Illustrator)

Dave's most despised teacher, a gleeful frog dissector named Ms. Veronica Krockle, is absent. Her students are psyched! But Sticky is suspicious. Especially when the substitute teacher turns out to be strangely interested in geckos. Or rather, boys with pet geckos.

That’s no substitute! That’s Damien Black, dastardly treasure hunter and master of disguise!

If Damien Black is in school, does that mean he’s behind Ms. Krockle’s absence? Could she have been kidnapped? And does that mean Dave has to rescue her? Ay chihuahua! The capped crusader is (reluctantly) on the case.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Humor, Middle Grade, Childrens, Audiobook

224 pages, Hardcover

First published December 15, 2009

About the author

Wendelin Van Draanen has written more than thirty novels for young readers and teens. She is the author of the 18-book Edgar-winning Sammy Keyes series, and wrote Flipped which was named a Top 100 Children’s Novel for the 21st Century by SLJ, and became a Warner Brothers feature film with Rob Reiner directing. Her novel The Running Dream was awarded ALA’s Schneider Family Award for its portrayal of the disability experience.

Van Draanen's latest book, Hope in the Mail, is part memoir, part writing guided, designed to encourage aspiring writers to pursue their dream.

Van Draanen is also the author of two short chapter-book series. The Gecko & Sticky books, are fun read-alouds, perfect for reluctant readers, and the Shredderman books—featuring a boy who deals with a bully—received the Christopher Award for “affirming the highest values of the human spirit” and became a Nickelodeon made-for-TV movie.

Van Draanen was a classroom teacher for fifteen years. She and her husband reside in California and have two sons.

Reviews

[EmmaB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly sweet fun made to be read aloud (or at least fantastic as an audiobook). New creatures (and rooms) at Damian's lair! An evil teacher who falls in love! A master of disguise! A mariachi band! and of course a donkey, and a talking gecko. Because this is a true story, after all.

Although how did Damian learn Dave's school and his name?
And does that really matter?
Probably not...
Onward!

[Alexander Valenzuela]

this is a book about a substitute, teacher napping and the student finding her teacher and saving the teacher.

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Gecko & Sticky are two of the most hilarious characters I have ever come across in literature. Sticky is the actual gecko and the “Gecko” is the superhero moniker of Sticky’s 13-year-old friend, Dave Sanchez. Confused? It makes sense when you read the book, whose tongue-in-cheek narrative style is full of asides and inside jokes for the reader.

The Gecko and Sticky actually make their first appearance within the pages of van Draanen’s four book Shredderman series–which I also highly recommend. (There is very little of van Draanen’s work I cannot recommend–only those I have not yet read.) It should be noted that in Shredderman they appear as a fictional superhero and sidekick character whereas in The Gecko & Sticky series the narrator specifically tells us she is relating an ABSOLUTELY TRUE story.

Dave is a typical 13-year-old boy. He is courageous, honest, well-intentioned, and has an entrepeneurial spirit. In the first installment he creates his own courier company powered by his bicycle. This serves to establish him as responsible, reliable, and an experienced bicyclist, allowing him to believeably travel from one location to another. He meets Sticky, a gecko lizard, and discovers in the first book of the series that Sticky can speak. He later finds out that Sticky has a habit of stealing small items and is also guilty of both embellishing facts to his advantage and omitting those that are not.

Despite Sticky’s less admirable qualities, his adventures with Dave opposite the exquisitely dastardly villian Damien Black show him to be good at heart. Likewise the friendship between Dave and Sticky continues to grow in each book. Dave learns unconditional acceptance of Sticky’s more frustrating tendencies. Sticky is increasingly genuine in his dealings with Dave as both gradually realize how much their friendship has come to mean to each of them.

The development of the friendship between the two characters is best experienced when reading the books in order but each individual story stands well on its own as well. The three bumbling Bandito Brothers (who are not really brothers and began as a mariachi band, not as bandits per se) who perform as Damien Black’s inept henchmen, along with Rosie, their buck-toothed burro, are also an endless source of humor.

These books are a wonderful combination of humor and adventure. I LOVE reading these stories aloud to an audience as well as independently. I read the first installment aloud to my 4th graders this year and they really enjoyed it.

I highly recommend this series; these stories are the definition of LAUGH-OUT-LOUD.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the funniest one so far, and I thought the prank used on the substitute teacher was genius, because it is exactly what could happen, it shows the consequences, and it became key to the plot. Plus, it was really really funny.

This installment from the series made me laugh aloud multiple times.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this, but the fact that I turned off the book and turned on the radio after a few minutes of listening several times...can't be ignored. I loved the alliteration and the story was ok, it just didn't suck me in. Also I thought it was the first book in the series...it wasn't.

[Lucia Pirone]

210 pages

[Bjorn Parker]

it was ok lots of movement and description pretty good book

[The Brothers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Asher (8yo) read.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it because after each chapter it had a cliffhanger.

[Tanairis · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book was weird to me it had some werid words that i could'nt understand