4:00AM Mark Wilson | digg_skin = 'compact'; digg_bgcolor = '#f1f8fa'; digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/My_Teacher_Fried_My_Brains_Author_Interview';
As a kid, I raised my hand too often in class and looked forward to science projects. I drew pictures of space ships and aliens on my notebooks before rushing home after school to play on my IBM 386. As for many young nerds, school could make for a solitary life. I related to a set of books—the
My Teacher Is an Alien series—better than I could with most of my lunch-table peers.
If you are in your mid 20s like me, chances are you’ve read the series, penned by
Bruce Coville, one of the most acclaimed names in children’s sci-fi. It’s the ongoing story of a young boy named Peter who—kidnapped by an alien disguised as his teacher—visits other planets, travels on space ships and meets a universe of aliens first hand, before having to argue humanity’s case against a galactic jury, lest they quarantine or even kill us for our warmongering ways. After rereading the series on a nostalgic rainy weekend, I decided to call up Coville and ask him what was going through his head when he wrote it all. It ends up, he’s just as interesting now as I, at age eight, would have imagined him.
The devices Coville dreamed up for Peter’s journey were amazing then, and still amazing now. Peter uses a URAT (”Universal Reader and Translator,” kind of like a PDA on steroids) to teleport around a ship the size of New Jersey. Meanwhile his crush Susan is caught in a stasis forcefield, and his arch nemesis, Duncan the former dunce, is the smartest person alive following a zap to the brain. Some of the tech was and is farfetched, while much of what was once considered alien (literally) has become commonplace. The first book in the series was published back in 1989, before broadband, 3G wireless and laptops in every home.
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