Seventh-grader Peter Thompson and his friends, Susan Simpson and Duncan Dougal, have had some pretty startling experiences over the past year. For instance, several of their teachers have turned out to be aliens, on Earth to investigate our species and our culture. Along the way, they've experienced some pretty weird effects of the aliens' technology first-hand. Now they've been kidnapped by the aliens, and learned where all this has been headed.

The alien are trying to decide whether it's safe to let humans continue to advance our technology and emerge into the galaxy, or whether it would be the safer and wiser choice, given how violent we are even towards each other, to destroy us now before we can do any damage outside our own system. The consensus is tilting pretty heavily toward "wipe them out now."

Peter, Susan, and Duncan, plus three aliens in disguise who have been their teachers, are assigned the task of doing a last in-depth survey of Earth and, if possible, making the case to the galactic council that Earth should be spared. As they travel to some of Earth's worst hotspots of war, poverty, famine, and disease, they see horrors that it's several times observed really shouldn't be seen by children.

One of their discoveries is that, for all their non-interference stance, at least one alien has meddled in Earth's development in a way that had major consequences.

But they are children old enough to understand the issues involved, while still young enough, unlike adults to be open to seeing that things can be different. And at each of these terrible sites, they also see people trying to make things better.

They also each individually have experiences that shake up their understanding not only of their world, but of their own understanding of their individual lives.

The question is, can they both believe in their own world's capacity to grow, and make a convincing case to the galactic council that it should be allowed to?

It's an exciting, fun, enlightening story, well-performed by the Full Cast Audio narrators.

Gonna be honest here, I did not see the ending conclusion they made about humans coming. An interesting end to a kid's SF series. ( )

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This is a sci-fi sequel to My Teacher is an Alien. Seventh-grader Peter, travels around with two of his friends and three aliens. The aliens are apparently decideing whether or not to leave earth alone. In the end, Peter asks he council to send teachers to earth.

I am not a big science fiction fan anyway, but this book almost repelled my attention. I could not get into it at all.

I would probably not use this in the classroom, but if I did I would have students illustrate a scene from the book. ( )

My Teacher Flunked the Planet is the last book in the My Teacher Is an Alien series. I don't have the earlier books, but that did not prove to be a significant impediment to enjoying this book due to the concise summary of previous events at the start of the book.

Peter, the human protagonist of the book, having previously uncovered the fact that reasonably benign aliens have replaced some of his teachers, left Earth to learn from the aliens, had his brain removed, studied and replaced, learns that the Intergalacatic Council of aliens has come to believe that humans are too dangerous to allow into space, and will either have their technology cut off, or simply be eliminated. Peter, and two other human children from earlier books - the smart and sweet Susan, and the former bully turned supergenius Duncan - are sent to Earth with three aliens to find a way to prove to the council that humanity doesn't deserve to be eliminated.

At this point, Coville lays on some fairly heavy handed social commentary, as the kids are whisked about the world to witness the worst humans can offer - war, famine, cruelty, indifference, and so on. Duncan is found by the police and taken away from the group, triggering nasty anti-alien riots. (One oddity in the book is that apparently making Duncan a supergenius also made him nicer, which I don't think follows. Sure, the book gives lip service to the idea that making someone smart doesn't necessarily make them nice, but Duncan, in practice, seems to have been reformed by his brain enhancement. Of the messages contained in the book, I'm least comfortable with the idea that smarter people are nicer).

Just when everything seems lost, Coville throws in what seems to be a deus ex machina ending, as the root cause of humanity's violence and anger is revealed - and it turns out it really isn't our fault. This, to me, undermines the plot of the book: humans aren't redeemed by anything we do, we are redeemed because we have special powers that were previously undiscovered. The message of the book, showing the human costs of violence and indifference, and that humanity is (or should regard themselves as) interconnected, is laudable. Oddly, for a book that deals with such a serious subject, the book is quite humorous too. But the clumsy execution at the end of the book reduces what could have been an excellent book to merely an average one.

This review has also been posted to my blog Dreaming About Other Worlds. ( )