My Gym Teacher Is an Alien Overlord

by David Solomons

Overview

When Luke's annoying older brother became a superhero instead of him, Luke thought he couldn't get any more disgruntled-- until his friend Lara became a superhero, too.  Now Luke's feeling totally left out; even his best friend gets mad at him when Luke's attempts at crime-solving without superpowers go terribly awry.  So when Luke discovers an alien plot to overthrow the world, he's got nobody to turn to who'll listen...nobody but his sworn enemy.  In this hilarious sequel to My Brother is a Superhero, Luke will have to put on his big-boy Daredevil underpants and find out what heroes and villains are truly made of.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780698192430
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	07/19/2016
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Lexile:	730L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

David Solomons is a screenwriter whose first feature film was an adaptation of Five Children and It (starring Kenneth Branagh and Eddie Izzard, with gala screenings at the Toronto and Tribeca Film Festivals). His latest film, Not Another Happy Ending, closed the Edinburgh International Film Festival. My Brother is a Superhero was his first novel for children. He was born in Glasgow and now lives in Dorset with his wife (and novelist) Natasha, and son, Luke. Follow him at @DavidSolomons2.

Read an Excerpt

“The Thucwex Gsuphlon has arrived,” boomed a voice that seemed to come from everywhere.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "My Gym Teacher Is an Alien Overlord"
by .
Copyright © 2017 David Solomons.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Young Readers Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

PRAISE FOR MY BROTHER IS A SUPERHERO:

"Wildly funny."—Kirkus Reviews

“A real treat…A hinted-at sequel will be eagerly anticipated by readers, who will want to return not only for the whizz-bang superhero stuff but also for the memorable and carefully developed sibling dynamic.”—BCCB

From the Publisher

06/01/2016
Gr 4–6—In this sequel to My Brother Is a Superhero, Luke is still a regular person, while his brother, Star Guy, and his neighbor Dark Flutter have superpowers and are busy saving people from catastrophes. Luke and his friend Serge desperately want to be part of their team, but their plea is summarily dismissed by the two heroes. Serge's mother refuses to let him be around Luke, so Luke is stuck playing Puny Earthlings, the video game based on Star Guy's adventures, with his currently out-of-work father. At school, Luke and Serge, neither of whom has any athletic ability, are convinced their gym teacher is an evil alien. Their idea is confirmed when Luke beats Puny Earthlings and is transported to the game's mother ship, which looks remarkably like his school. There he is met with an endless number of his whistle-wielding gym teacher. These aliens want to take over the universe; they've already captured several planets, and Earth is next. It's up to Luke to save the world. He can't do it alone, and the only person who can help him is the evil comic book store owner, Christopher Talbot. The plot is much more complicated and harder to follow than that of the first book. While the characters stay true to themselves, the story doesn't flow as well and there is not nearly as much humor. Readers should be familiar with the first novel before jumping into this sequel. VERDICT Give this to fans of the first installment.—Nancy P. Reeder, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Columbia, SC

School Library Journal

2016-04-13
In this sequel to My Brother is a Superhero (2015), it's up to totally ordinary 11-year-old Luke to save the planet.When Zorbon the Decider handed out superpowers in the last book, the white boy was taking a bathroom break, so his brother became Star Guy, and then his Asian-American friend, Lara Lee, became Dark Flutter (who can command small, cute animals). Luke's been left out twice. When his mom takes away his Xbox, Luke resorts to visiting the comic-book store that had been run by the previous book's villain, who swears he's now on the side of good. Luke decides to count on that pledge when he's transported to an enormous spaceship and learns that extraterrestrials who run a continuous reality show intend their next episode to be the destruction of Earth. Possibly even worse, they've all taken on the appearance of his gym teacher, Miss Dunham. However, Luke's real problem is that he has discovered a weakness in Star Guy's defenses, but Star Guy won't listen to him. Can Luke figure out how to save Earth with only his wits? Solomons never lets up on the humor; readers will laugh out loud, as the book uses every superhero cliché imaginable. In a slightly meta and very funny turn, Luke takes advantage of them: his encyclopedic knowledge of comic books gives him a strategic edge over the ETs.Wildly funny. (Adventure. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews