The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon

by Mike Thaler, Jared D. Lee Studio (Illustrator)

Overview

A bestselling Black Lagoon title--with an eye-catching new look for Trade!

It's another scary day at the Black Lagoon. . . .

There's a new gym teacher transferring over from the junior high, and Hubie is worried. The junior high students say he's big, mean, and blows his whistle a lot. Will Hubie really have to run a lap around the world to pass Mr. Green's class? Will he be able to lift Mr. Green's pickup truck and climb up a rope while it's on fire?

Hubie doesn't want to go to gym class anymore!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545069311
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2008
Series:	From the Black Lagoon Series
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	38,289
Product dimensions:	7.60(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Mike Thaler was born in Los Angeles in 1936. After moving to New York City, he started his professional career drawing cartoons for adults in 1960. A children's book editor saw one of these cartoons and encouraged Mike to write for children. Since then, Mike has written over 140 children’s books and has become known as America’s “Riddle King.” Mike says that writing and riddles are a powerful way to stimulate a child’s interest in learning and creating. He is an award-winning author and illustrator and has been called “one of the most creative people in children’s literature.” Mike currently lives in Canby, Oregon.

Jared Lee has illustrated more than 100 books for young readers. He has received awards from the Society of Illustrators, the Martha Kinney Cooper Ohioana Library Association, the National Cartoonists Society, and others. He lives in Ohio with his wife and a menagerie of dogs, cats, ponies, ducks, and a few unknown creatures.

Editorial Reviews

As a rising 3rd grader, I remember being told by the outgoing 3rd graders just how hard the grade really was. They talked about all the crazy things the teacher made you do, the giant pile of homework every night, and how strict the teacher was. There were tales of knuckles being rapped and notes home tattling on every little thing you did. I was pretty nervous about the next year and I had the whole summer to stew about it. Of course, once I got to 3rd grade, it was a cinch. Apparently not much has changed in terms of schoolyard banter because Mike Thaler has built his career on this very scenario. His goes a bit further by exaggerating the complaints the older kids pass on until they become almost epic like a tall tale. Kids eat the books up because they ring so true to their own experiences. Since kids love humorous books, these books also are a perfect fit. In this book, it is the gym teacher who has left middle school to move to the elementary grades which makes him an unknown and doubly scary. Hubie's imagination takes everything the kids tell him and multiplies it until the most preposterous ideas take hold. Jared Lee's cartoony illustrations lend to the wildness of Hubie's imagination. In the end, the new gym teacher is pretty cool and all is well. The beauty of this book is not that it all turns out well in the end but that the craziness Hubie goes through is so darn funny. The accompanying disk features a child narrator who does a fine job reading the story. Two extra bonuses are interviews with both Mike Thaler and Jared Lee on the disk. Teachers will like them as much as the children. Reviewer: Joan Kindig, Ph.D.

Children's Literature - Joan Kindig

A gym teacher is transferring from the junior high school to the elementary school and the junior high students have lots of tales to tell about him. Mr. Green is big and mean. He is hairy like an ape and barely speaks, choosing instead to blow his whistle a lot. He keeps his office full of balls and clubs and tires. He makes students run laps—first around the gym, then around the school, and then a lap around the world. For a fitness test, students need to pick up his pickup truck. He sets the bottoms of the climbing ropes on fire so students must make it to the top and he presses bodies between boards to improve posture. Other horrible things follow up to the last, worse thing—square dancing with girls! After many pages of imagining all the tortures in store for them, the elementary students meet Mr. Green—and he is a regular guy. The crazy cartoonlike illustrations and the satisfying ending will likely appeal to another generation of young readers in this reissue of a book from the popular series, "Black Lagoon." Reviewer: Phyllis Kennemer, Ph.D.

Children's Literature - Phyllis Kennemer

PreS-Gr 3—Jared Lee's humorous illustrations have been fully animated to accompany and augment Mike Thaler's tongue-in cheek text (Scholastic, 1994) about a young boy who is worried about the rumors he's heard about the new gym teacher coming to his school. Is the gym teacher a monster? Does he play dodge ball using a Dodge truck? Does he really make you do laps around the world? The conjecture is fun and the ending is reassuring. The narrator, Joey Stack, is perfect as the voice of the boy. Interviews with the author and the illustrator provide insight into how they chose their careers and their creative processes. The CD/book set contains the audio from the DVD with and without page-turn signals, as well as both interviews. Fans of the series will enjoy this production.—Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary School, Federal Way, WA

School Library Journal