Title: The Teacher Who Knew Too MuchAuthor: Rob KeeleyPublished: January 28, 2024Pages: 80Genre: MG Fiction
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What Goodreads has to say:
With police and her gangster boyfriend Al on their trail, Miss Judson and Ben go on the run. But Al needs them for one last job...
This new novel from award-winning children’s and YA author Rob Keeley is a quick and breathless read, a comedy crime thriller that will enthral the young reader and keep the pages turning! Perfect for confident readers, reluctant readers or as a holiday gift.
What I have to say:
Like many of us, Ben has a problem with his math class. Unlike many of us, his problem is not that he's having trouble memorizing the multiplication tables or finding the square root of X---it's that his math teacher is a serial bank robber.
Miss Judson is young, pretty, and nice, making her one of the most popular teachers at Ben's school. When Ben realizes that Miss Judson is the bank robber who's been on the news lately, he decides to help her instead of turning her in. As it turns out, Miss Judson is at the mercy of a heartless criminal who goes by Al Parizzi. Her analytical math skills make her the perfect candidate for opening safes. But Miss Judson is tired of a life of crime. She just wants to go back to teaching. The only problem is, Al won't let her. When Ben gets involved, things get even messier.
At this point, I've just come to expect that any book by Rob Keeley (author of my beloved Spirits series), will be fun, full of thrills and surprises, and at least a little bit adorable. This book did not break that pattern. While it's aimed at MG readers, I very much enjoyed it.
For one thing, the characters are fun. Ben is the son of a famous magician, and as such, he's a budding magician himself. He has a strong moral compass and wants to help Miss Judson, but being a kid, he sometimes gets in his own way as a result of not thinking things through first. I find it hilarious that his main objection to Miss Judson being convicted is that he knows he'll never get another math teacher who will be as nice to him.
Miss Judson is also sweet, and even though she's technically a criminal, I was on Ben's side: I didn't want her to have to go to jail.
Then there's Ben's grandma, perhaps the true hero of the story. (I'm mostly kidding, but she is pretty boss.) She serves up food, sass, and one of the book's biggest surprises.
The plot is plenty exciting: a student and his math teacher on the run from both the police and a crazy crime lord. Then throw in a brief stint with a traveling circus---because as everyone knows, the best way to hide is to join a traveling circus, especially if you're a character in a novel.
In short, it was a quick, fun read that I'd recommend to MG readers and those who enjoy light-hearted, exciting MG fiction. I was smiling as I read it.
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