When Charlieâs best friend Mike Blackburnâs little sister eats his homework, Mike wants revenge. And Charlie knows he must be present to witness the act. After all, what are friends for?
But something goes awry. Instead of changing Mikeâs sister into a little green fellow with warts, Charlie Fogalman suddenly isnât quite Fogalman anymore. He has a bit more furâand a tail!
âDonât tell me youâve changed me into a dog.â
âOkay, I wonât tell you.â
But the proof is in the drool.
Mike knows he needs to change Charlie back, but how? What went wrong, and how does he change him back without making the situation worse? In the meantime, where does Charlie live? Not at the Blackburnâs house, where the parents are allergic to dogs. And not at Charlieâs house, where no one would believe itâs really him underneath all the fur.
Add to this, a teacher who just might be a Russian spy, an overly zealous dog catcher, and a school bully, and Charlie has plenty to occupy is canine brain.
When Charlieâs best friend Mike Blackburnâs little sister eats his homework, Mike wants revenge. And Charlie knows he must be present to witness the act. After all, what are friends for?
But something goes awry. Instead of changing Mikeâs sister into a little green fellow with warts, Charlie Fogalman suddenly isnât quite Fogalman anymore. He has a bit more furâand a tail!
âDonât tell me youâve changed me into a dog.â
âOkay, I wonât tell you.â
But the proof is in the drool.
Mike knows he needs to change Charlie back, but how? What went wrong, and how does he change him back without making the situation worse? In the meantime, where does Charlie live? Not at the Blackburnâs house, where the parents are allergic to dogs. And not at Charlieâs house, where no one would believe itâs really him underneath all the fur.
Add to this, a teacher who just might be a Russian spy, an overly zealous dog catcher, and a school bully, and Charlie has plenty to occupy is canine brain.
                                               My Teacher is a Spy
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My best friend Mike Blackburn showed up to school with a certain look on his face. The look said, Iâm up to no good...want to join me? Was he kidding? Up to no good and having fun were one and the same.
Mike yanked a stick out of his backpack. âCheck this out, Charlie,â he said. It was about eighteen inches long and had a grip on one end. âKnow what it is?â
âNose picker?â I asked. âFor those hard-to-reach places?â I waggled my fingers. âThese work just fine for me. Donât be fooled by false advertising.â
âNope.â He waved the stick around like he was directing an orchestra, then he pointed it at my chest. Â âGuess again.â
Mike didnât play a musical instrument. Why would he want a directorâs baton? I shrugged. âWell, it looks like a nose picker.â
âMagic wand,â he said. âCame in the mail yesterday. Three box tops and fifty cents.â
I didnât know the going price for magic wands, but that seemed way too cheap. You get what you pay for, right?
âWhat should I do for my first trick?â
âI donât know,â I said. âAnything.â
âI donât want it to be just anything. It has to be the right thing.â
That was Mike. Everything had to be planned ahead of time. He never just went with the flow. Seriously, the guy had to lighten up.
He could see the wheels turning in my head. âI need ideas, Fogalman,â he said.
âHmm...â I scratched my chin.
âYes?â
âA million bucks for your best friend?â
âNah, thatâs no good. Besidesââ
The bell rang and the door to our classroom flew open. There stood Mr. Crans, our teacher and the worldâs widest human being. He had a crew cut and mustache that went on and onâwide, like the rest of him. And he barked like a drill sergeant. âStraighten up that line.â When we did, he gestured toward the door. âAll right, inside. Keep you traps shut.â
Of all the schools in Last Chance Gulch, I got stuck at Anacapa Elementary. And of the four fifth-grade classes at Anacapa, I got stuck with Mr. Crans for a teacher. I was pretty sure he was a Russian spy, or maybe some kind of mafia hitman. He had that look like he was getting ready to inflict pain on someone. And he was always telling us to keep our traps shut.
Usually my trap obeyed. But not now. Not when my best friend had a magic wand and wanted to use it and wanted me to tell him how. How often do you get a chance like that?
So my trap was busy coming up with magic wand ideas. Mikeâs was too. He didnât like my million-dollars-to-his-best-friend idea. I lowered my sites. âBrand new bicycle for your best friend?â I whispered. I looked over my shoulder at Mike as we walked inside. âPretty please?â
âCharlie Fogalman!â Mr. Crans barked.
Oops. I slunk inside. Better talk about this magic wand stuff later. I took my seat behind Cynthia Dubos and across the aisle from Mike.
âAll right,â Mr. Crans said. âThe prompt is on the board. Get out your journals and start writing.â
Did you see that? He put us right to work. We didnât even say the Pledge of Allegiance. Seems awfully Russian Spy-ish to me.
I got out my journal and glanced at the board, where heâd written the prompt.
How does it feel to be a snowflake?
Was this a joke? How does a snowflake feel? Okay, maybe Mr. Crans was not a Russian spy after all. No Russian spy would think up a prompt like that.
How does it feel to be a snowflake? Letâs see. Coldâthatâs how. Very, very, cold. Â Brrrr. After a while, I stopped writing about snowflakes and started listing magic spell ideas. Mr. Crans would never know. As long as he saw my pencil moving, heâd be happy.
At least I thought heâd be happy. He prowled the aisles and looking over our shoulders. Then he said, âOkay, whoâd like to share what theyâve written?â
No one made a peep. Not even Cynthia Dubos, who usually liked to show off. Mr. Crans was still pacing the aisles. I made myself as small as possible. Maybe he wouldnât see meâŚmaybe heâd pass on by. Maybe heâdâ
âCharlie, how about you?â
Yikes! I looked at what Iâd written. It was a list of magic wand ideas, cool stuff like skateboards and soccer balls. Movie tickets, slingshots, a lifetime supply of pepperoni pizza. He wanted me to read itâŚout loud?
âStand up, Charlie,â Mr. Crans said.
I stood up and looked at my list.
âGo on, letâs hear it.â
Every eye in the room was on me. There was only one thing to do. I had to fake it. When all else failed, tell a whopper.
I cleared my throat. Then I launched into it. âUhâŚRalph, the snowflake, was falling from the sky, talking to his friend George and all was wellâŚuhâŚuntil they landed on a snowbank and couldnât find each other anymore. âGeorge, are you there?â Ralph said. âGeorge?â George didnât answer. They both got covered by other snowflakes and no one could hear Ralph anymore.â
I looked up. âThatâs what itâs like to be a snowflake, Mr. Crans. Itâs okay while youâre floating around because you can talk to your friends, but after you land thereâs nothing to do but lie there and get smashed by other slow flakes. Then you melt.â
âSo what are you saying, Charlie?â
âBeing a snowflake sucks.â I sat back down.
Mr. Crans didnât ask anyone else to read. Instead, he told us to put our journals away and get out our math homework. âIâll come around and check it off,â he said.
âYikes,â Mike whispered. He looked at me with his Iâm Dead look. âI donât have it. Whatâll I do?â
He sat there at his desk, turning whiter by the second. Halloween was still sixth months away, but Mike looked like a ghost.
âRun?â I whispered back.
No time. Mr. Crans was coming down his aisle, his gigantic wing-tipped shoes slapping the floor, boom, boom, making the windows rattle. He was almost too wide for the aisle.
Mike was doomed. Mr. Crans came closerâboom, boom. Mikeâs glasses bobbled on his nose.
âMr. Blackburn!â Everyone in the room froze. Mike started to shake. I shook too, in sympathy. âNo math?â
 âNo, sir,â Mike squeaked, adjusting his glasses. âMy sister ate it.â
âYour sister? Donât you mean your dog?â
Well, she wasnât all that attractive, but I wouldnât go that far.
âNo, sir. My sister. She eats things. Nonfood things. Sheâs crazy.â
This was true. She was a little crazy. She once took three large bites out of Mikeâs state report and Mike gotâ
âDetention!â Mr. Crans screamed.
For the rest of the day, Mike was in a mood. At recess I loaded him up on magic spell ideas, most of them involving me getting rich or at least getting cool stuff, like skateboards, bicycles, and computers, but my friend was too depressed to hear me. Detention with Mr. Crans will do that to you.
After school, I called my mom and told her I had to hang around because of Mikeâs detention. I did my homework on the basketball court while I waited for my friend. When he got out of detention, he walked over looking mad. His fists swung at his sides like wrecking balls. Â âIâve got the perfect magic trick,â he said.
âOkay, lay it on me. Iâd like a blue one. Eighteen speed. With a water bottle, if thatâs okay.â
Mike shook his head. âLetâs go to my house. Youâre going to want to see this.â
âSee what?â
âNo more detention for me. Iâm going to turn my sister into a frog.â He thought for a moment. âDo frogs eat paper?â
âNah. Flies, mostly.â
âPerfect. Letâs go.â
I had to admit it was a good idea. If I had a sister, Iâd want to turn her into a frog. Even if she didnât eat my homework. Itâs a big brother thingâinflict pain on smaller people, especially if they are related to you.
On the way home Mike practiced flicking his wand all over the place. He still looked like he was directing an orchestra, but what did I know? I was looking forward to seeing him do it for realâon his sister. If the trick worked we could keep her in a shoebox and bring her to Show and Tell.
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Life in Last Chance Gulch can be a bit unusual, especially when youâre pretty sure your teacher, Mr. Krantz, is probably a Russian spy and the school bully is meaner than most bullies. When Charlieâs friend, Mike, gets a new wand, Charlie and Mike are excited to try and see if they can turn his annoying sister into a mouse. Instead, the spell backfires and Charlie becomes a dog. Soon itâs a race against time to reverse a spell. With a fake kidnapping, dog catchers, wild dogs, and a fake science experiment, life as a dog is anything but easy. Can Charlie and Mike find the spell to reverse Charlieâs four paws before itâs too late?Â
Author Greg Trine masterfully mixes magical realism with humor, adventure, and science. The characters are well developed, engaging, and draw the reader into the story. Â The names of the characters are humorous and help set the characters and settingâs natures. Last Chance Gulch, for example, is a fitting name for Charlieâs situation and Gertrude McRump, Mr. Krantz, and Fletcher Stinkleyâs names say it all. Although the secondary characters are underdeveloped, they are sure to get a good laugh out of the reader. The plot is entertaining, full of twists and turns, and has a mostly satisfying ending. The use of science to solve the problem is accurate and is a plausible conclusion to how Charlie turned into a dog. The dialogue is realistic and does a great job of portraying sarcasm for the characters and does a great job of showing the character dynamics in the book. Â The charactersâ lackadaisical approach to fixing Charlie, although fitting for the characters, tends to overshadow the tone of the novelâs mystery.
Overall, readers who enjoy Greg Trineâs books or realistic fiction, magic, science, and humor will want to pick up this book.