{"id":303,"date":"2022-08-07T17:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-07T17:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/?p=303"},"modified":"2025-05-20T20:51:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T20:51:22","slug":"the-teacher-from-the-black-lagoon-by-mike-thaler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/?p=303","title":{"rendered":"The Teacher From the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dr. Toughlove writes about the hilarious book, &#8220;The Teacher From the Black Lagoon&#8221;, written by Mike Thaler and illustrated by Jared Lee, for her August 2022 column.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1817\" height=\"1560\" src=\"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dr.-Toughloves-Book-Club-Column-August-2022.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dr.-Toughloves-Book-Club-Column-August-2022.jpg 1817w, https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dr.-Toughloves-Book-Club-Column-August-2022-300x258.jpg 300w, https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dr.-Toughloves-Book-Club-Column-August-2022-1024x879.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dr.-Toughloves-Book-Club-Column-August-2022-768x659.jpg 768w, https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dr.-Toughloves-Book-Club-Column-August-2022-1536x1319.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1817px) 100vw, 1817px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Since students and teachers will be returning to school at the end of August, Dr. Toughlove thought it would be the perfect time to review the book \u201cThe Teacher from the Black Lagoon\u201d written by Mike Thaler and illustrated by Jared Lee. Mike Thaler has written over 50 books and according to his website, has been called \u201cThe Court Jester of Children\u2019s Literature.\u201d Jared Lee\u2019s colorful illustrations serve to enhance Thaler\u2019s words in highly humorous ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During her early elementary school years, Dr. Toughlove can remember being worried about who her teacher would be, and more importantly if she (most if not all of the teachers were female back in the dark ages), would be nice. The nameless protagonist in this story has the same concern. When he arrives at school, he learns that his teacher\u2019s name is Mrs. Green, and at that point, his over-active imagination takes over. He imagines that Mrs. Green is really green, has the face of a dragon, has big teeth and a long tail. If that isn\u2019t scary enough, she scratches her name on the blackboard with her claws!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once he has a vision in his mind of what she looks like, things go from bad to worse. One of the protagonist\u2019s classmates, Freddy, has the audacity to throw a spitball. He is unceremoniously burnt to a crisp by Mrs. Green\u2019s ferocious breath and becomes a pile of aches on his desk. Dr. Toughlove doesn\u2019t want to give the entire story away, but let it suffice to say that \u201cThe Teacher from the Black Lagoon\u201d presents a series of hilarious events involving the imagined Mrs. Green and her students. Jared Lee\u2019s colorful and captivating illustrations depict the protagonist\u2019s wild imagination in highly entertaining way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are the adult who is reading this story aloud, don\u2019t even try not to laugh \u2013 the words and the pictures are so hilarious that keeping a straight face is next to impossible. This book makes a perfect read aloud and is also a gem for emergent readers to read independently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If your child\/student likes \u201cThe Teacher from the Black Lagoon\u201d, Dr. Toughlove would suggest that you explore some of the other books in the Black Lagoon series. Two of Dr. Toughlove\u2019s favorites are \u201cThe Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon\u201d and \u201cThe Author Visit from the Black Lagoon.\u201d You really can\u2019t go wrong with any of them \u2013 they are all laugh out loud funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Teacher from the Black Lagoon\u201d is recommended for children aged 4-8. Copies are available at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qaclibrary.org\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.qaclibrary.org\/\">Queen Anne\u2019s County Library<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Toughlove writes about the hilarious book, &#8220;The Teacher From the Black Lagoon&#8221;, written by Mike Thaler and illustrated by Jared Lee, for her August 2022 column. Since students and teachers will be returning to school at the end of August, Dr. Toughlove thought it would be the perfect time to review the book \u201cThe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions\/305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}