Mr. Docker is off his rocker!

Dan Gutman

Book - 2006

Mr. Docker, a new science teacher, is a crazy inventor who blows things up, uses potatoes for power, and has A.J. and his friends wondering whether science is for nerds or is the coolest subject ever.

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jFICTION/Gutman, Dan
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Subjects
Published
New York : HarperTrophy 2006.
Language
English
Main Author
Dan Gutman (-)
Other Authors
Jim Paillot (illustrator)
Edition
1st Harper Trophy ed
Physical Description
100 p. : ill
ISBN
9781442015951
9780060822279
9780060822286
Contents unavailable.
Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 1-3-AJ thinks science is for nerds, but he isn't sure what to expect from Mr. Docker, the new science teacher at Ella Mentary School. Mr. Docker loves to blow things up, is always asking "why" questions, and is crazy about potatoes. The students begin to suspect that he's a mad scientist who has swapped brains with their real science teacher. The only way to prove it is to spy on Mr. Docker and catch him in the act in his home laboratory. Narrator Jared Goldsmith captures AJ's personality perfectly, and his expression and pacing make Gutman's words (HarperCollins, 2006) come alive. Goldsmith has narrated all the other "My Weird School" titles, so he's very familiar with each of the characters and how they interact. This volume will hook reluctant readers and will show them how much fun science-and a crazy science teacher-can be.-Anne Bozievich, Friendship Elementary School, Glen Rock, PA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

My Weird School #10: Mr. Docker Is Off His Rocker! Chapter One Science Is for Nerds My name is A.J. and I hate school. Why do we need to learn how to read if we have books on CD? Why do we need to learn social studies if that stuff happened a long time ago and we can't do anything about it now? I hate that stuff. But there's one subject I really hate. Andrea Young. Well, Andrea is not exactly a subject . She's this annoying girl in my class. Even her curly brown hair is annoying. "Guess What, A.J.?" Andrea said as we were putting our backpacks away. "Your butt," I replied. (Anytime somebody asks, "Guess what?" you should always say, "Your butt." That's the first rule of being a kid.) "I know what A.J. stands for," Andrea said. "Do not." Do too ." We went back and forth like that for a while. There's no way Andrea could know what A.J. stands for.I never told anyone. Even my best friends, Ryan and Michael, don't know. If anyone ever found out what A.J. stands for, I'd have to get a new name. I'd have to leave town. "A.J. stands for -- " Andrea never got the chance to finish her sentence because our teacher, Miss Daisy, came in. "Enough chitchatting," Miss Daisy said. "It's time for Show and Share." Oh man! I forgot all about Show and Share! We were supposed to bring in something that starts with the letter D and tell the class about it. I looked in my desk for a D word. Nothing. I looked in my pockets. All I had was lunch money. But wait! A dime! "Dime" begins with D! "I brought in a dime," I told Miss Daisy. "Good," she said. "What can you tell us about the dime, A.J.?" "It's worth ten cents," I said, and everybody laughed even though I didn't' say anything funny. Andrea was waving her hand in the air, and she got called on, of course. "The word â€~dime' comes from the Latin word â€~decimus,'" Andrea said. I hate her. "Very good, Andrea!" said Miss Daisy. "How did you know that?" "I looked it up in my D word," Andrea said. "I brought in a dictionary . I use it all the time at home to look up words." Andrea grinned her little I'm-so-smart grin. Ryan, who sits next to me, whispered, "If she was really smart, she wouldn't have to look stuff up." "Andrea, would you please look up the word â€~science'?" asked Miss Daisy. "S-C-I-E-N-C-E." What a dumb spelling! There's no reason why that word should have a C in it. Andrea turned the pages of her dictionary. "S...S-A...S-C," she said. "Here it is. â€~Science is knowledge made up of an orderly system of facts that have been learned from study, observation, and experiments.'" "Very good!" Andrea smiled her I-know-everything smile and said she was going to keep her dictionary on her desk from now on in case she had to look up any other words. Why can't a box of dictionaries fall on her head? "I have good news," Miss Daisy said. "We have a new teacher at Ella Mentry School. His name is Mr. Docker, and he used to be a real scientist. He's retired now, but he agreed to come back to school to each us science." That was good news? It sounded like bad news to me. We never had to learn science before. Now, just because some old guy doesn't like being retired, we had to learn a new subject. It wasn't fair. Why did I have to learn science? It's not like I was going to be a scientist someday. When I grow up, I'm going to be a football player. I play Pee Wee football. Tackling people is fun. Suddenly Mr. Klutz, our principal, poked his bald head into the doorway. "Has anybody seen Mr. Docker?" he asked. "I think he ran away." "We better line up in ABC order and go look for him!" said Miss Daisy. "Quickly! To the science room!" I didn't need any dictionary to tell me what science is. Science is for nerds. My Weird School #10: Mr. Docker Is Off His Rocker! . Copyright © by Dan Gutman . Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from Mr. Docker Is off His Rocker! by Dan Gutman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.