Hyde and Shriek

February 18, 2013
The first book in the Monsterrific Tales series is narrated by Miss Clevis, a science teacher who accidentally puts chemicals for a school experiment in her breakfast drink. At school, when a colleague gives Miss Clevis a gift, she has waves of dizziness and transforms into Jackie, her positive-thinking 11-year-old self. She is soon befriended by a bubbly student named Dawn, who assumes Jackie is new at school. But an encounter with a mean teacher triggers another change: Miss Clevis becomes Ms. Hyde, a mean-spirited substitute teacher who delights in tormenting her students. Lubar's plotting can grow a bit repetitive as Miss Clevis shifts from one persona to the other, bringing out the best in people (as Jackie) and the worst in them (as Ms. Hyde). Though the novel offers some musings on good and evil, Lubar (the Weenies series) puts the emphasis on comedy, not chills, in a story that slots nicely between The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Miss Nelson Is Missing! Bermúdez gives the story a cinematic sense of drama in his b&w spot illustrations. Ages 8âup.

December 1, 2012
The kids at Washington Irving Elementary School are about to find out their hometown of Lewington is a monster magnet. Miss Jackie Jean Clevis loves kids and her job teaching science to all grades at Washington Irving Elementary, and she may well be the student body's favorite teacher. One morning, she accidentally mixes the chemicals for the day's experiments with her banana-honey-yogurt breakfast drink, with mind- (and body-) altering consequences. When she's around mean people, she morphs into sadistic Ms. Hyde, and when she's around the nice, she becomes sweet sixth-grade student Jackie. Can Miss Clevis reintegrate with the help of new sixth-grade friends? Or is she doomed to yo-yo forever...or worse, be stuck as Ms. Hyde? Lubar kicks off his six-book series of kids-as-monsters tales with an uncomplicated meditation on good vs. evil that riffs on Jekyll and Hyde. As long as readers don't question how Jackie/Ms. Hyde's clothes are also magically altered by ingested chemicals, they'll likely enjoy this, particularly if they liked the Adventures of the Bailey School Kids, which this resembles, down to Bermudez's occasional illustrations. Fans of Lubar's Nathan Abercrombie zombie series will find much to like here too. Ever-so-slightly creepy monster fun. (Horror. 8-12)

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May 1, 2013

Gr 3-6-Miss Clevis, one of the most popular teachers at Washington Irving Elementary School, loves her job as a science teacher. Then one morning she accidentally mixes chemicals for a project into her morning banana-honey-yogurt smoothie and morphs between being a mean substitute named Ms. Hyde and a kind sixth-grade student named Jackie. As Ms. Hyde, she gives students failing grades, takes the class on a field trip to the town dump, and torments children. As Jackie, she befriends Dawn, one of her favorite students, and tries to stops others from being mean. She soon realizes that when she is around mean people she becomes Ms. Hyde and when she is around nice people, she becomes Jackie. Can she get back to being Miss Clevis or will she be stuck in this new life forever? A few full-page drawings of the characters and their classroom surroundings are scattered throughout. Kids will enjoy this strange and creepy school story.-Sarah Polace, Cuyahoga Public Library System, OH

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2013
Grades 3-6 Viola Swamp rises again. But instead of that well-remembered picture-book character, here the teacher is benevolent science teacher Jackie Clevis, who, thanks to a chemical cocktail, transforms into the harsh, child-hating substitute teacher Ms. Hydedepicted in Calo's occasional full-page illustrations as a dark-haired, authentically scary-looking scowler. Telling the tale from the teacher's point of view, Lubar brings her to the realization that the uncontrollable switch from nice to nasty is triggered by the moods of those she meets. One problem: when she is Ms. Hyde, she enjoys her bad behavior so much that she doesn't want to change. After several cruel pranks, along with a scheme to blow up the school, Ms. Hyde is outsmarted by sweet-natured Dawn and other students, who find a way to restore her to the way she had been born to be. Not all good. Not all bad. Just all human. Though this reads like a spun-out short story, the chance to get inside the head of an evil teacher and watch her torture her classes should compensate for the ruminative passages and lags in pacing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2013
Elementary science teacher Miss Clevis accidentally ingests chemicals and is transformed into a Jekyll/Hyde character--nasty substitute Ms. Hyde and sweet sixth-grader Jackie. The pressing dilemma: how to counteract the chemically altered result before the normally well-liked teacher remains in this dual role-reversal forever. This is an entertainingly creepy story with a good-prevails-over-evil theme and intermittent black-and-white drawings.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)