Substitute Creacher

Author & Illustrator: Chris Hall

©2011 Little, Brown and Company

32 pages

Fantasy

            This book was created with a moral behind it: Don’t disobey or be sneaky or you could be cursed. The book begins with a rowdy group of students. The teacher is gone for the day so they know they will have a substitute teacher. In the room walks a monster instead of a substitute teacher. The children are alarmed to see this. The creacher tells them that he is there to tell them about what could happen to them if they keep misbehaving.  He shows mug shots of children that have misbehaved. He tells of a student that had a really messy desk. Inside the desk an earthquake began and tore down the entire school.  A boy ate so much glue things stuck to him all the time and he couldn’t get anything off. The last student scared everyone on Halloween to get their candy. The boy always stole their candy as they ran away. The boy stole candy from what he didn’t know was a magical gnome. The boy turned into his scary Halloween costume. Mr. Creacher tells the class that it was him that did that many years ago and he is now cursed by the gnome.

            The illustrations really set the mood of the story. The story is told using cartoon like drawings and comics, complete with dialogue boxes between the characters. The picture looks to me to be painted with oils.

            The book is wonderful to use with younger grades like first to third grade. The teacher can use the book for character education when talking about self control. The teacher can also use this book to use for a writing prompt. The teacher can also teach about the text feature of dialogue boxes from the book.

            This book has not won any awards.