Oliver is not impressed. Brightling Middle School has a new teacher and he’s in Oliver’s own homeroom. Oliver and his reluctant friend Nathan are the kings of mischief and always at the top of the trouble tree.

Who better to launch his first gag on, than Mr Aidact? Oliver works on his first spitball of the year. The right amount of paper and the right amount of spit, chewed just so, formed and ready to be fired through his very own launcher. Perfect! ….or not! The teacher intercepts his prank, stealing all Oliver’s thunder.

Rosalie is an A grade student and already planning her college application. There are many academic achievements listed but no sports. Trying out for field hockey, she hopes she will make the team and then muddle through the season. She didn’t know she would be getting a new coach – Mr Aidact.

Steinke is always in detention. He likes to argue about everything! His teachers suggest putting his arguing skills into Debating, but he can’t attend the club meeting because he is always in detention. And then suddenly, so is Mr Aidact. His teaching colleagues realise quickly that “he doesn’t mind doing the detention” slots every day. He’s soon putting out safety cones on rainy days, and doing cafeteria duty. The other teachers love it.

This new teacher is different in other ways too. First, he comes with his own student teacher that follows him wherever he goes, always lugging a huge briefcase. Mr Aidact can foil a plot as fast as troublemaker Oliver can think them up and he is really, really clever. He seems to know everything – gaining huge popularity and an actual school following across all ages for his knowledge of rap, rock, pop, country, opera and any other type of music. The trivia club think he’s a god!

But hang on. Oliver has been watching very closely. Something is not right and when he and Nathan find out the truth about their new teacher, they know they have to keep it a secret. But this is middle school. (Intermediate – NZ), and keeping secrets, especially this big is impossible!

I was excited to see a new Gordon Korman book out and grabbed a copy asap. As always, Korman’s characters are authentic, funny, and challenging middle schoolers. Although it was obvious to me what Mr Aidact was, it was very entertaining watching his “pupils” work it out.

More humour comes with the PTA president’s crush on him, the way the AI part of him responded to the age of the children around him, slowly morphing into one, and how seriously he suddenly takes his coaching position of a team who’ve never played together and a sport he knows nothing about.

I’ve always found a feel-good factor to Korman’s novels and The Super Teacher Project is no different.  The truth might change things but middle schoolers know what’s really important to them and together they are smart enough to make things right.

Each chapter is told by different characters from the pupils, the principal and the engineer who built the AI in the first place.

Another Great Read from Gordon Korman!

Author – Gordon Korman

Age – 8+

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(2023, Harper Collins, School, Funny, Humour, Detention, AI, Secret, Mystery, Pranks, Principal, Field Hockey, Best Coach Ever, Trivia Whizz, Popular, Teachers, Artificial Intelligence, Computer, Technology, Student Teacher, New Teacher)