‘Attention! Up straight, soldiers.’ Matt Porter’s new chapter book for ages 7+, Mr Sergeant and the Dodgeballs of Doom, is the first book in the CRT: Crazy Relief Teachers.

In Mr Sergeant and the Dodgeballs of Doom, military madman, Mr Sergeant, taking charge of Grade 6B at Outback Creek Primary School. Push-ups and other military style punishments are the order of the day as Mr Sergeant trains his charges for a dodgeball battle versus a pack of super-competitive dads.

Matt talks about his books

The idea for the Crazy Relief Teachers series was hatched when I read a newspaper article declaring that a rural school didn’t have enough teachers. The solution? They were considering hiring people from other jobs. I thought ‘What would happen if these people taught in-line with their previous profession?’ I brainstormed ideas and came up with Mr Sergeant training students for a dodgeball battle as if they were soldiers.

I researched everything about the army, soldiers and training methods. This included watching movies, reading books and internet searches. My next task was to take the information I had learnt about the army and place it into a school setting. Hopefully this achieved a lot of humour as students can relate to the thrill or dread of a casual relief teacher and Mr Sergeant is definitely a crazy relief teacher! He orders the students to complete an obstacle course while their classmates hurl dodgeballs at them, divides the class into squadrons and formulates a battle plan to defeat the dads.

Mr Sergeant and the Dodgeballs of Doom can be purchased from the Celapene Press website at:

http://www.celapenepress.com.au/bookshop.html

The second book in the series, Ms Law and the Corn-fusing Case of the Broken Window, is out now and can also be bought from Celapene Press.

Matt’s Writing Activity

Here’s a fun, free writing activity from Matt.

Don’t forget to enter our writing competition. Find out more here http://writingclassesforkids.com/competitions-2/