They're Torturing Teachers in Room 104

Author: Jerry Piasecki.

Pages: 134.

Price: $3.50 paperback.

Publisher: Bantam Skylark.

I have no regrets about reading They're Torturing Teachers in Room 104. I loved it! It's funny, it's wild and the situations are unpredictable! It will make you smile on a rainy day, or any day.

The scene is a typical American school, in a typical American town. However, this book is far from typical, because the characters are extremely unusual.

Take Ms. Merriweather, the "mystical" teacher, for example. This is a teacher who can make spitwads turn around in midair!

Then, there are Scarlet and Tiny Dupa, two teachers who are very big morons. This husband-and-wife duo fight over every little thing. They're such morons that instead of flipping a coin to solve disagreements, they flip each other! And those are just a few of the characters.

Short lived fun

Now that you've met some of the not-so- common characters, here is one of the many humorous parts for you to enjoy:

"Lissie secretly (or so she thought) unwrapped a piece of grape bubble gum and popped it into her mouth. When Ms. Merriweather wasn't looking, she'd blow a quick bubble and snap it back with a loud click. Her fun didn't last very long.

"Once, after the blow and before the snap, Ms. Merriweather turned around and made eye-to-bubble contact. Lissie tried snapping it back fast, but the bubble wouldn't budge. In fact, the harder she sucked in, the bigger the bubble grew. Ms. Merriweather kept staring as the bubble grew to the size of a baseball . . . then a basketball . . . then a beachball.

"Lissie stood up next to her desk, her eyes as wide as saucers. She tried to pull the gum from her mouth, but the bubble was now so big that she couldn't even reach her lips. The bubble just kept growing. Soon it was the size of a purple weather balloon.

Attacked by purple slime

"There was no telling how big it might have gotten if Ms. Merriweather hadn't clapped her hands and said, `I hate to burst your bubble, dear, but . . .'

"There was a loud explosion. Everyone except Lissie dived for the floor, hands covering ears. When the kids looked up, after the blast, Lissie was covered from head to toe with what looked like sticky, purple slime.

" `But,' Ms. Merriweather continued where she'd left off, `the next time you want to chew gum in class, make sure you have enough for everyone.' "

Piasecki's descriptions of the characters in the scenes just shared make this book hysterical. You can almost see what's going on, and that makes this book well worth reading. I give it two thumbs up.