Miss Nelson is Back

By Harry G. Alard Jr.
Illustrated by James Marshall
Published in 1982

    This is a book about a classroom and having a substitute. It has happeend to all of us I'm sure many times in our educational careers. I know as a student substitutes always meant you were a little louder, and out spoken, and pretty much a whole different class. I honestly would dread being a substitute knowing how me and my fellow classmates were as kids. In this classroom they hear of a particularly horrible substitute named Miss Swamp. She is said to be a with. When Miss Nelson their teacher leaves they are lucky to see that the principal is actually their sub. It turns out though he is as exciting as a bump on a log, maybe even less exciting then that. So they take matters into their own hands and pretend to be Miss Nelson and dress up, they get caught in the act though and lets just say this class learned their lesson!
     As a reader I like reading this book to myself. I read it aloud though once to a girl I babysit and I found the constant dialogue and repetitions of names somewhat tiring. Overall though I really enjoyed the story and think it is something all students can relate to. In my classroom I would have this as one of the free read options for my students. If I wanted to have them do a response I think this one would be fun to do a readers theater or act it out. Only a section though or make it a lot shorter since it is a long book.