Been a while since I covered a Shadow Zone book. The first time I did with Alien Under My Bed, I found a book I really enjoyed all told. Can lightning strike twice? Well this one does have an evil doll, so I'm not so sure about that. Also, this book apparently has a movie adaptation. Might look into that sometime when I can. But for now let's check out My Teacher Ate My Homework.
COVER STORY
STORY
Jesse Hackett has it rough. Despite setting his clock ten minutes ahead, he's always fifteen minutes late. He attributes this with living in the weird town of Cape Sorrow, Nooooooooooooooooooorth Caaaaarolina! Hey, got the wrestling reference in early this time. His parents are also heavy workers. His mom runs their restaurant while his dad works nights at the furniture store. So they're barely together. Add that with Jesse's dad having to watch Jesse's six year old sister Annabel. After finally getting ready for school, Jesse meets with his friend Cody Glimcher, who is stoked to be getting a ten speed for his birthday. He's even going with his sister Geneva (who is described as a space case who is into crystals and chanting) to go to the bike shop to pick it out. Sorry book, but you put the words "bike shop" in your story and I just think of that Diff'rent Strokes episode.
Cody invites Jesse to come, but he's more worried about getting detention from El Finko. El Finko is the nickname given to his harsh teacher Mrs. Augusta Finkelstein. She's super old and has a mole the shape of brazil, at least to what Jesse claims. And despite, you know, saying some rotten things about her along with either failing or forgetting about reports, Jesse just can't fathom why Mrs. Fink has a problem with him. And given he forgot to finish his history report, detention seems imminent. And Mrs. Fink is indeed a hardass as she calls upon Cristina Spinola to do her oral report, then chides her for poor grammar.
Mrs. Fink eventually calls on Jesse for his report, but he admits to have not finished it. She mentions that Jesse is very close to failing history and being held back a grade. She tells him to write the report that night and maybe he'll do better on it. Later, Jesse and Cody talk about how mean Mrs. Fink is and the stories about her. Like how she used to be the leader of pirates in the Bahamas, or how her husband was some sort of murderer and Mrs. Fink left him because he wasn't successful enough. Or, and this one made me do a double take, Jesse saying that she must have worked at the animal shelter, gassing puppies. Some super harsh jabs, which turns out to be a case of bad timing as Mrs. Fink heard all of it. She says nothing and leaves, to which Jesse realizes he just signed his own death warrant. Gee, I wonder why Mrs. Fink has it out for him? The mind truly boggles.
Cody and Jesse head to the bike shop with Geneva, who is indeed as meditative and trippy as she's described. As they park, they see a strange little shop nearby. So, of course they go inside to look around. It's got some oddities, but Jesse notices a bunch of weird dolls, with one in particular catching his eye. A doll that looks just like Mrs. Fink. He asks to buy it, but the woman running the shop panics and says it's not for sale. Geneva goes from calming to Karen, angered about why Jesse can't buy the doll, until the woman relents and just lets Jesse keep the doll, but warning him about the Shadow Zone.
Jesse takes the doll home and adds the finishing touches to make it look like Mrs. Fink. He then begins to suspect that this could be like a voodoo doll and whatever he does to the doll, it'll happen to the real Mrs. Fink. So he places a pin into one of the doll's arms. The next day, Jesse wakes up early and heads to school where Mrs. Fink arrives with her arm in a sling. But Jesse, being dense, and being we're only 30 pages deep into this 123 page book, thinks it must be all a big coincidence and not, you know, him cursing his teacher. No, really, I wonder why he's on her shit list. But hey, her injured wrist meant no papers being graded, so Jesse survives for now.
When he gets home, Jesse checks the doll and removes the pin. But, just to be sure, he pokes Mrs. Fink's other arm just to be sure. Thankfully without keeping the pin in. While he's distracted by his mother, he sees that Annabel grabbed the doll and is just bashing it around. So, if Mrs. Fink shows up the next day with a concussion then maybe Jesse will clue in. And wouldn't you know it? The next day is Mrs. Fink's left hand being hit by an arrant football causing her to fall over and smash her head on the concrete. When school ends, Jesse heads home, only to see the Mrs. Fink doll in his backpack. Just then, our stock bully, a boy named Joey Bartunek, grabs the doll and mocks Jesse over it. Then he recoils in pain, saying that the doll bit him. But Jesse thinks he's full of it.
That night, Jesse thinks about everything, then remembers the woman mentioning the Shadow Zone. Suddenly, things go dark and the doll emerges from his backpack. And she can talk as well. Jesse runs off to get Cody, but when he shows Cody the doll, it doesn't move or talk, so Cody just thinks he's being weird. Annabel grabs the doll again and bandages it up, causing Jesse to snap at her again. Dad calms things down by changing the subject to how Cody poorly separated the laundry. Now all his shirts are pink. He sure hopes he won't get laughed at by his coworkers. No, they'll just ship you off to a mental hospital where you'll bunk with a big guy who thinks he's Michael Jackson.
The next day, Jesse gets awakened by the doll again. When he arrives at school, Mrs. Fink is all better. As if when Annabel healed up the doll it did the same to the real Mrs. Fink. He tries to tell Cody about the doll, but they both argue some more before Mrs. Fink shows up, wanting to see what's in Jesse's locker. He opens it and the doll jumps at Mrs. Fink before falling to the ground with a sickening thud. As does Mrs. Fink who again suffers head trauma. Reader beware, you're in for PCS. But now Cody knows that Jesse's telling the truth. His suggestion is to take it back to the shop, even though the woman did say not to come back. And sure enough, when they come back, the place is empty and closed.
The doll talks to Jesse later and says that this was all her plan. She drew his attention, she forced him to dress her up as Mrs. Fink. They're in this together. And he can't get rid of her either or she'll hurt his family. Oh gee, wonder what books this reminds me of? She tells him to call the principal, to which she mimics Mrs. Fink's voice, saying she won't be around for a while. Jesse wants to know where the real Mrs. Fink is, but the doll says he doesn't need to know. Then tells him to vacuum the floor. Gotta tell you, this doll's been stronger with the slave talk and threats than any dummy Stine's written, that's for sure.
The next day, the doll has Jesse iron t-shirts then go to the library for research materials. Turns out the doll knows quite a bit about Mrs. Fink, like how she used to read for kids at the library. Jesse of course makes a crack, but the doll says she was quite well liked. He talks with Cody, who suggests that maybe Geneva could help, given her history with spiritual stuff. And we don't get the "doesn't believe them because INSERT FRANCHISE relatives" bit, she believes that it's possible. She'll study up on voodoo dolls for them, hoping to find a way to help them out. Of course everyone still has concerns about Mrs. Fink and if she's dead, but Geneva isn't so sure. But the first thing is to find a way to control the doll.
The doll then has Jesse do his history homework. So, she seems to be making Jesse do good deeds and shape up. So she's not totally ev-no, never mind, she pushes Jesse's mom down the stairs. Or at least that's what Jesse things. Thankfully the worst his mom gets is a sprained wrist which she thinks came from tripping on the carpet. In fact, she tells Jesse to tack the carpet down. What, is this somehow the secret origin story of the Empire Carpet guy? Geneva tells Jesse she has a way to stop the doll, but it requires summoning a powerful entity. If it starts possessing cheerleaders, I'll be quite upset.
There's also a few other things that Jesse has to do to set up the spell. First, they can only do it during the "Dead Hour", which is between 11:30PM-12:30PM. And he has to break into Mrs. Fink's house, take some hair, some items, and an important keepsake. So off we go to raid Jesse's possibly dead, possibly not teacher's house. So they trap the doll in Annabel's dollhouse with a gator-shaped charm and some magic root to keep her from escaping. Jesse sneaks into Mrs. Fink's house and finds some hairs, an old sash and a teddy bear. He escapes before the cops arrive. He shows Geneva the items, but there's still one problem. They have to wait three days for the full moon. Which I guess makes sense, but also sounds like padding.
Geneva believes the doll preys on people with low energy or who think low of themselves. It's probably why it took control of Mrs. Fink's life and has been manipulating Jesse. But they should be able to defeat it on the night of the full moon, so long as Jesse shows "pure intent". Jesse heads home to see the doll still trapped in the dollhouse. She asks to see Jesse's history paper and hey, she actually ate the homework! I was worried the title was misleading given we're near 100 pages without the act of homework being ingested happening.
He tells his English teacher, Ms. Macro, about what happened and how she's easier to talk to than Mrs. Fink. To which Ms. Macro says that Fink finds it harder to talk with her students, but they still grade much better with her. So, maybe it's more that she's tough only because she wants to see the best out of her students. Yeah, sure, but she did give the girl who moved to the states from Portugal a hard time when she didn't pronounce Antietam correctly, so maybe she's not that perfect. But it's finally clicking to Jesse that maybe Mrs. Fink feeling like crap was why she was so easily taken by the doll.
The next few days go by quick, and Jesse actually seems to start taking more initiative, including succeeding with his history report. He also plans a welcome back party for whenever Mrs. Fink does return. He also starts to realize how he's been a piece of crap lately. But the doll still mocks him and says he'll never be rid of her. One way or another though, he's done with this doll. The night comes, but when Jesse goes to get the doll, it's missing, as is Annabel. But they still have to do the spell. Jesse and Cody set the fire and do the ritual, when they see the doll's face inside the flames, telling Jesse that she made him a better person and that he can't get rid of her.
He then sees Annabel at the nearby beach walking towards the pier. He quickly finishes the ritual and runs off to save Annabel. But when he gets there, she's fine, and with the real Mrs. Fink who has no idea what happened. They all head back to Jesse's where their parents are rightfully angry about, you know, their kids wandering off in the middle of the night. Jesse then shows Mrs. Fink the banner that he and the other students made for her when she came back. She then says that she did feel bad for giving Cristina a hard time with the grammar. Hey, look, characters that learn. That just feels so strange.
TWIST ENDING
So everything's cool. Jesse and Mrs. Fink have a better understanding of each other. She also lets Annabel keep her old teddy bear. Which is fine, but Jesse sees it winking. Then it sits by itself. Still more interesting than Mr. Teddy.
CONCLUSION
Second Shadow Zone and another one I really liked. Granted, it does feel like it spins its wheels more to make it to that over 100 page quota, but I think it still works in the same way Alien Under My Bed works. We have a character who actually has to learn that they're the one being terrible and the people they perceive as being bad people aren't so bad themselves. Jesse sucks for the most part, but that's intentional. He has to come to that realization about how Mrs. Fink isn't as bad as he makes her out to be. And how he treats her, going so far as to insult her, actually does hurt her. Which, given she was already feeling rotten for how she treated Cristina, must have been that ultimate realization. So when Jesse learns his lesson and betters himself for it, it does feel earned.
There is a Night of the Living Dummy feel to the story, though thankfully not bit for bit. I mean, it's still an evil talking doll, and one that makes their victims their slaves. But I like the twist that the doll is making Jesse better himself and be more responsible. So it does leave you with the question about if it was the doll's doing or if it was still messing with Jesse. Did it really push his mother down the stairs, or was it really the carpet? The book ending with it still feeling like a gray area is actually not bad. As for the supporting cast, I like Geneva for our mystic, Cody's a bit annoying in places, and Annabel is okay. Jesse gives her flack, but she's not a bad kid at all.
In terms of scares, this one is okay with it. Be it the multiple injuries sustained to Mrs. Fink, her straight up disappearance, how the doll is presented as being able to bite and attack others. It's not the deepest horror, but is still effective. And hey, no lame chapter stingers. No wonder I liked this book. Granted, the Shadow Zone stuff still feels very underutilized yet again. Like it's a gimmick that still doesn't have much thought put into how it can be perfectly executed. And the twist is also mediocre, but probably the only way to end this. And that technically the teacher didn't eat the homework, but that's semantics. When the overall product was still decent enough to not be annoyed by, I'd call this a win.
Unless I hit a really hard wall with these, so far Shadow Zone's been a win in my book. and I will definitely have to see how the film adaptation handles this story. My Teacher Ate My Homework gets an A-.
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