Readers Response 3

My Teacher is an Alien series

Bruce Coville

p.1-p.458

1hr. 30 min.

 

     I used to love these books as a kid, and re-reading them i liked them but not as much as I did a few years ago. This book is actually 4 books in one that tell the story of aliens that investigate earth and are revealed to be making the decision whether to destroy it or not. A band of kids from earth originally stop their study, then later help them to realize that earth is a good place, but then see the planet's cruelties. Eventually they find the reason that humans have he biggest brains in the galaxy, but are the stupidest. This discovery, once revealed to the aliens, saves Earth. The big problem with the general plot is it's about aliens. Now, I love sci-fi and aliens, and am a big fan of books like war of the worlds and movies lie close encounters of the third kind. But, reading this in the 21st century, where every story written about aliens has written and aliens invading is an un-original, cliched idea, this books plot isn't the greatest. Of course, back in 3rd grade i could care less about cliches, but now this book brings on a strong "I've heard this before" feeling. Going on to the actual material, the book moves along at a decent pace. It can be a bit childish at times, but it is a children's book, so no complaints there. The last book is really where the good part happens, and is a big step above the other books. I guess it makes sense because the last book was released 4 years after the 1st, so the readers are mature enough to understand what happens in the last book, because some of the stuff in there is actually pretty deep. Reading all 4 in a row, the seriousness difference in the volumes really stands out. I mean the 1st has a lot about 6th grade playground drama, and the 4th talks about the cruelty of world hunger and babies that die because their mothers don't have enough milk. Anyway, the big message in this series, as in all of Mr. Coville's books, is that humans are idiotic, cruel creatures which are filled with hate. He did end it saying humans could get another chance, but he did literally say that humans were filled with hate( he said it was because there was only 1 human who split into little humans at impact on earth, and that separation made the hate, but we all know that's a bunch of sci-fi baloney.) Hmm, this sounds like something Rachel would like. :)