Tales From Lovecraft Middle School #3: Teacher's Pest by Charles Gilman

My name is Robert, and I'm worried about my best friend Glenn. He was bitten on the neck by a funky-looking bug, and he started feeling strange. Now, he says he doesn't want to see me anymore, and I can really use a friend. There's a head lice epidemic, and bugs are all over the school building. The janitors are on strike, and it seems like the exterminators are making the problem worse. Pip and Squeak, my two-headed rat, are still with me along with Karina, a ghostly girl confined to the school grounds. No one knows the student council president is actually a giant insect monster in disguise, and I'll bet he's helping Crawford Tillinghast, the demented physicist. He wants to overthrow the human race with his monsters and creatures, but I'll do everything I can to stop him.

I hadn't read the previous two books in the series, but I didn't feel like it affected my understanding. The book reminded me a little bit of My Teacher is an Alien. Robert didn't know which adults could be trusted and which ones were being controlled by Tillinghast. This created an ongoing tension, as did the loss of Glenn. The main conflict was stopping the insect invasion, but then a rescue mission broke out. Robert was determined to save someone, not Glenn, but it was clear the bugs would be exterminated in the process. The whole plot moved along very quickly, as it took only 103 pages to develop and resolve. The quick pace kept things hopping, but it resulted in shallow characters too. The story followed Robert, so his thoughts and feelings were pretty clear. However, all the other characters made appearances as needed without any depth to their descriptions. Overall, the book told a short, amusing story of bugs trying to overthrow humans, but it will probably appeal to a select audience. If the description above interests you, give it a shot. I plan to read the second book in the series to see if it's any different.