Mister Fred by Jill Pinkwater When 6A's beloved teacher Miss Cintron leaves for South America to teach there for a year, 6A plans to get her back by acting so awful that no other teacher will put up with them, so that Miss Cintron will be forced to return. They run through seven substitutes with no problems. But the old Bad Breath, their principal, finds a man willing to be their permanent teacher. His name is Goldberg Fred. Not Goldberg, comma, Fred, but Goldberg Fred. Mister Fred is different. He is not bothered by their attacks. He bats Alice's spitballs away with his eyes closed, and he makes perfect paper airplanes. He does roll call by first name, and loves Sousa marches. His extraordinary hearing includes the ablility to hear thoughts. 6A thinks that he might be an alien. Mister Fred challanges them to figure out if he could be an alien, and if so, where he might have come from, and if there have ever been his kind on earth before.
This is one of my favorite books. Unfortunately, Mister Fred went out of print in 1994. The Chicago public libraries still have a few copies, and it's definitely worth ordering if yours doesn't. Some interesting points to think about while you read this book- notice that Anya(our narrator) often says "a kid" instead of naming her classmates. How many classmates are actually mentioned? Does Anya know the names of all of her classmates? Which last names match which first names?
Question: Have you ever had a teacher you thought was an alien? Would you want to have an alien for a teacher?
Happy reading.
