S.O.S.: Society of Substitutes #2: The Zoo Switcheroo

By Alan Katz and Alex Lopez

If there’s a problem in school, there’s no substitute for the world-saving substitute teachers of the S.O.S.! This is the second book of this hilarious, highly illustrated early chapter book series.

Oh no! Noah—part time classroom pet, full-time evil mastermind—has his paws set on setting free all the animals at the city zoo.

Good thing that when there’s a problem, there’s no substitute for the super substitute teachers of the S.O.S.!

HarperChapters build confident readers one chapter at a time! With short, fast-paced books, art on every page, and milestone markers at the end of every chapter, they're the perfect next step for fans of I Can Read!

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jan 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9780062909367

Alan Katz

Alan Katz has written more than forty highly acclaimed children’s books, including Take Me Out of the Bathtub and Other Silly Dilly Songs, The Day the Mustache Took Over, OOPS!, Really Stupid Stories for Really Smart Kids, and the New York Times bestseller Misty the Cloud, with Dylan Dreyer. Alan has received many state awards for children’s literature, and he frequently visits schools across the country.  Alan is also a six-time Emmy-nominated writer for series including The Rosie O’Donnell Show, Taz-Mania, Pinkalicious & Peterrific, numerous Nickelodeon shows, and more. He hosted a long-running game show on SiriusXM’s Kids Place Live channel, and he’s also created comic books, trading cards, theme park shows, and hundreds of other special projects for kids and their parents. 

Book preview

The second graders of 311B could always rely on Mrs. Baltman for a funny Monday sign. And they especially enjoyed this one, because it was both hilarious and true. They were taking a class field trip to the city zoo!

Milton Worthy walked to his desk and blurted out to no one in particular:

I’m ready to do schoolwork. What? No work today? Field trip? Oh, okay, if you insist. I’ll just put my schoolbooks away.

Milton laughed. Wow, did he crack himself up.

Hello, everyone. As you know, today is our long-awaited class trip, Mrs. Baltman said. We will be leaving soon; please take your seats.

"Please take our seats to the zoo? Milton asked her. Won’t they be hard to carry around?"

Mrs. Baltman thought about what Milton had said. Then she started laughing. A lot. It was the kind of laugh that teachers don’t usually laugh in front of their students.

And that made the kids laugh too. It was the kind of laugh that kids don’t usually laugh in front of their teachers.

Everyone was still laughing as Mrs. Baltman’s classroom phone rang. She answered it and said, Ha-ha—hello?—ha-ha.

The person on the other end of the phone must have said something very serious. Because Mrs. Baltman abruptly said, Oh my!

Then her eyes darted around the room, and . . .

. . . she started coughing.

And coughing. And coughing. The kind of coughing that would get her a starring role in a cough drop commercial.

But this wasn’t a commercial. It was a classroom.

Everyone stopped