Title: The Class from the Black Lagoon
Author: Mike Thaler
Illustrator: Jared Lee
Publisher: Scholastic
Genre: Children
Age level: 4-8
Themes: Anxiety about unknown situations, the first day of school
Synopsis: It's another scary day at the Black Lagoon... for the new teacher, Mrs. Green. There's a new class coming for the first day of school and Mrs. Green is worried. Is it true that the class is really weird and that they put their last three teachers into early retirement? Will the students really turn into horrible ghouls as soon as they get to school? Will Mrs. Green really need her ultimate survival kit to teach the class or tame the class?
Synopsis: It's another scary day at the Black Lagoon... for the new teacher, Mrs. Green. There's a new class coming for the first day of school and Mrs. Green is worried. Is it true that the class is really weird and that they put their last three teachers into early retirement? Will the students really turn into horrible ghouls as soon as they get to school? Will Mrs. Green really need her ultimate survival kit to teach the class or tame the class?
About the author: Known as the Riddle King of America, Mike Thaler is the author of the popular Black Lagoon books and the Heaven and Mirth series. He was born in Los Angeles and started his professional career drawing cartoons for adults. A children's book editor saw one of his cartoons in a national magazine and encouraged him to try writing for children. Mike has had over 220 books published, and is considered one of the most creative forces in children's literature. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Patty, and travels nationally, speaking in schools, libraries, and churches.
Pre-reading activities: Asking the students what they think the book is about from looking at the pictures throughout the books. Predict if they think the class is really full of children from a "black lagoon," and try to find out why it is called a black lagoon.
Post-reading activities: The students can write about and discuss what they thought their classmates were going to be like for the school year, since they probably didn't know who their classmates were going to be beforehand.
Reflection: I read this book while student teaching in 2nd grade on my last day of student teaching there as a read aloud to the students, and I loved the reactions my students had to the different things Mrs. Green thought the students were going to be like.
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