Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute

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

Part time lunch lady, and part time super hero. Lunch lady is an unassuming lady serving well balanced meals to students everyday. But no one knows she tries out her side kick Betty's special gadgets made out of kitchen tools in the school's boiler room. On this occasion, lunch lady notices something is amiss with the substitute. She switches to stealth mode and investigates the sub's movements. She discovers the substitute is not even human after all, but rather a cyborg created by the science teacher. He would stop at nothing to get rid of the favored teacher in order to win teacher of the year himself. The entertaining graphic novel style adds to the action of the story. Lunch lady represents the ordinary human who is able to able to do extraordinary things, allowing the reader to live vicariously through her. Children can connect with the ordinary school atmosphere and fantasize what their lunch lady might do.