SOLVED. kids/YA, sci-fi/aliens published in 80s to late 90s [s]

[Heather]

The book I'm looking for is about a boy, his teacher, and family who have to go to another planet to live because earth was devastated by natural disasters. I clearly remember on the first page of the book the teacher (mr. turner? trawler? something with a T) was clinging to a life raft in the flood and they were being lifted into the air to rescue helicopters or the spaceship. And I remember when they got to the other planet, there were kids there just like them, who had lived there their whole lives. The 2 boys were discussing milk and the one from earth said he just went to the supermarket to get it and the other one asked “what’s a supermarket?”. And also I remember on that planet the boy was going to ride his bike but instead he pulled out a tiny box from his backpack, pressed on it, and out popped his bike! And at the end the had to fight this monster from the planet. The adults wouldn’t believe the kids of course, because they thought the planet was perfectly safe, but the kids had to defeat it. It was some weird metal thing. But after they defeated the monster, the boy from earth knew he couldn’t go back home again because there was nothing to go back to.

Does anyone know the name of this book or even the characters names? I remember the book was quite thin but the words were small. I thought it was something Bruce Coville might have written but I checked and he didn’t write anything like that. It was a stand alone book, not part of a series.

I remember reading this book between 1996-1998 but it could have been written in the 80s or even earlier as i got it at the used bookstore. I remember the animorphs series had come out and i was reading those at the same time as this book. Also I was reading a lot of Bruce Coville too maybe that was him?

Any ideas?

[Michele]

Not an exact match, but maybe Only You Can Save Mankind? Originally published in 1993.

[Heather]

Michele wrote: "Not an exact match, but maybe Only You Can Save Mankind? Originally published in 1993."

Thanks for the response but no that isn't it. :( I've edited my post and added a couple things. Maybe it'll help...

[Heather]

Been thinking it might be bruce coville...I know he wrote a few books of short stories...but i can't find descriptions of them online to see if they match what i'm looking for.

[Michele]

Do you know roughly what age this would have been aimed at, or what grade (3d grade, 5th grade)? Did it have chapters? Any illustrations?

[Heather]

it was a chapter book. No illustrations that i can remember. Fairly narrow book, blue spine but the words were smaller than I was expecting so it took me longer to read it than I thought it would. I'm a bad judge of reading levels...but I guess it would have been meant for maybe 8-13 year olds?

[Tab]

- Journey to Terezor ?

[Heather]

OMG THAT's IT! how did you find it? Thank you so much!

[Michele]

Another win :)

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Popular book; queried 5x now.