My Teacher Fried My Brains

Title: My Teacher Fried My Brains
Author: Bruce Coville
Illustrator: John Pierard
Genre: Science Fiction (Chapter Book)

Summary
My Teacher Fried My Brains is the continuation of the book My Teacher is an Alien. This book deals with the aftermath of the exposure that the alien Broxholm had been pretending to be a substitute teacher in the local school and that Peter Thompson had left with the alien. My Teacher Fried My Brains is told in the perspective of a seventh grader at Kennituck Falls, Duncan Dougal. The story begins on the first day of seventh grade for Duncan Dougal, which was most likely the worst day of his life. After pulling the fire alarm, Duncan hides in a dumpster and discovers an alien’s hand, which leads him to believe that there is still another alien posing as someone else at the school. Throughout the remainder of the book Duncan tries to discover which of the four new teachers might be the alien. During this adventure, Duncan participates in an in-class demonstration of static electricity that he comes to believe has made him more intelligent. Since he believes this machine is making him more intelligent, he sneaks into his science classroom after school hours to use it. One day when he is using the machine he discovers an alien creature “Poot” in the classroom refrigerator, which makes him even more suspicious of his science teacher. One day after school when Duncan was having a terrible day, he goes into his home economics teacher Miss Karpou’s classroom to seek advice. During this conversation, Miss Karpou’s begins to pull off her mask and identifies herself as the alien. She freezes Duncan’s body and uses his brain as a means of communication among other aliens in the galaxy who are trying to decide what they want to do with humans. Susan, the hero of the last book tries to save Duncan when Miss Karpou is out of her house, however the two of them do not get out of the house in time. At the end of the book Duncan, Susan, Peter, Broxhom, and Kreeblim(Miss Karpou) work together to decide what they will do with the humans. The aliens give Duncan, Susan, and Peter one month to convince the rulers of the galaxy not to wipe out the human race.

Classroom Connection
My Teacher Fried My Brains would be a good book to read aloud to the class because it is interesting and fun to read. Reading this book to the whole class would allow time for discussion about different topics that the books brings up, such as bullying, the first day of school, friendships, and characteristics of science fiction. Since the book is broken down into chapters, the teacher could end at a suspenseful moment, which would spark the interests of the students and would make them excited about reading together the next day.