Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute

Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute is a graphic novel in the Lunch Lady series, written by Jarrett Krosoczka. The plot of the books in this series involves a crime fighting lunch lady who defends justice and defends her school from peril. In this book, Lunch Lady goes on a mission to uncover the mystery of the new substitute, Mr. Pasteur, who she finds out is a cyborg programmed to replace the popular teachers at school! The evil science teacher, Mr. Edison, is jealous of the well-liked teachers and wishes to win Teacher of the Year by way of sabotage. After following the substitute home from school one day, the Lunch Lady discovers he is a robot and is then promptly attacked by an army of cyborgs! If it weren't for the help of her nosy students, the Breakfast Bunch, who followed her to see what the life of a lunch lady entailed outside of school, then they might not have succeeded in getting away unharmed.

I really enjoyed reading another story from the Lunch Lady series, it was funny, suspenseful and clever! I liked how the characters ended up embracing their interests that other students thought were silly or uncool, and I also enjoyed that the characters stood up for themselves to a school bully. That shows readers that being yourself is a good thing and you're allowed to like what you like, regardless if it's "cool" or not. Also, standing up to a bully with confidence and non-violence may be easier after you've proved you can save the world from cyborgs! I would use this story in the classroom because it is a high-interest novel for students. It has a great mix of familiar words and content-specific vocabulary. I like that they used the names of famous scientists as character names, such as Edison and Pasteur. This could be a great introductory book for a science classroom, the teacher or students can take turns reading the story aloud while pausing to circle unfamiliar words. Then, the class could go over and discuss the meanings of those words or names to define. To branch off of this activity, after learning about the names of famous scientists students could write a short comic strip using one famous person as a main character to tell a story about their life or achievements.

Krosoczka, J. (2009). Lunch lady and the cyborg substitute. New York: Random House.