My Teacher Fried My Brains by Bruce Coville

This is more or less merely a vehicle for Coville to work into the book his argument that humanity is fundamentally inhumane.

Later, when he tries to make himself even smarter by sneaking into the science classroom after school hours, he discovers an alien creature in the classroom refrigerator that seems to confirm his suspicions.Eventually, the alien is revealed as is the alien's plot concerning Duncan and the machine used to make him smarter. This conclusion is reinforced when he participates in an in-class demonstration of static electricity that he comes to believe has made him smarter.

After getting in trouble with some typically juvenile delinquent behavior, Duncan narrows his search down to four teachers, finally focusing on the new science teacher. In fact, through much of the book Duncan proves to be fairly astute, even before his brains are fried.The story of the book revolves around Duncan's suspicions that one of the new teachers at his junior high school is another alien, reinforced by his discovery of a human like 'glove' similar to the disguise that had been used by Broxholm to disguise his alien features. While he still believes himself to be fairly stupid, part of his ignorance is explained by his family's disdain for education and learning. In this book, Duncan is revealed as a sad child, pushed around by his brother and abused by his father (it is common in Coville books that childhood bullies turn out to be sad children beset with problems for whom the only way to express their sorrow is to lash out at others).

Duncan had been established as a dim-witted bully who, in the previous book, had spent most of his time pushing Peter around. My Teacher Fried My Brains continues the story begun in My Teacher Is an Alien, following Duncan Dougal as he (and the rest of Kennituck Falls) deals with the aftermath of the revelation that the alien Broxholm had been impersonating a substitute teacher in the local school, and that Peter Thompson had left with the alien.While the viewpoint character in My Teacher Is an Alien was Susan Simmons, in My Teacher Fried My Brains the viewpoint character is Duncan Dougal, who had been a secondary character in the previous book.

My Teacher Fried My Brains by Bruce Coville