| Title | : | Vampires Dont Wear Polka Dots (The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 059043411X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780590434119 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 80 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1990 |
The kids in the third grade at Bailey Elementary are so hard to handle that all of their teachers have quit. But their new teacher, Mrs. Jeepers, is different to say the least. She's just moved from the Transylvanian Alps and she seems to have some strange powers that help her deal with these mischief-makers. Her methods may be a little unconventional, but, then again, Mrs. Jeepers may be just what the Bailey School kids need.
Vampires Dont Wear Polka Dots (The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids, #1) Reviews
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*February 2016 Updated Review*
Due to the success of the Goosebumps movie, studios are buying up children's book properties left and right, such as the recently acquired
Magic Tree House series. Honestly, I'd love it if someone made movies out of the Bailey School Kids books and I think the perfect actress to play Mrs. Jeepers would be Susan Sarandon.
With a Transylvanian accent and a green brooch, I think she would great as the third grade teacher who may or may not be a vampire.
There is a really great subtlety of playing on the children's imaginations in these books and that you never have a definitive answer as to whether these adults really are the monsters the children think they are. I've loved these books since the 90s when I was a kid and I've seen them really get children interested in reading, and if you can take a kid away from video games or television and actually want to sit down and read a book then I'm all for it. -
I got this book to read to my 7 year old niece at night before bed. She has been getting into the twilight series and vampires and werewolves, but I find them way to mature for her so I found this book and it is so great. It kept her attention. It had a little scare here and there but nothing bloody just things poping out at ya. It has funny parts that would
Make her laugh. So if you have a young one like me who wants to be into the stuff like the older kids this book is for them. It's from the point of view of third graders so it really relates to the preteens! -
This was one of my favorites as a kid. Now I'm not sure why.
I think it was my latent gayness, which was already identifying with spookiness and fabulously-attired alpha females. Mrs. Jeepers still reigns, but mostly this book is about a bunch of third-graders who are total dicks. -
I read this a LOOOOOONG time ago as a kid, and although I don't remember much about it, I thought it was a fairly amusing book and I enjoyed it.
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Okay, so I read a lot of popular children's book series when I was a kid: Goosebumps, Magic Tree House, A to Z Mysteries, and so on... But somehow, I wound up skipping over The Bailey School Kids books. I honestly don't know how this happened since I was all in for monsters and spooky stories as a kid, but I just never picked up one of these books. That is, until now.
A big thanks to the infamous and hilarious
J. for finally getting me into this series. It's long overdue, but just because I'm 21 does not mean I can't read kid's books. Actually, I think I enjoyed this first book in the series (Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots) more now than I would have even as a kid. I am able to appreciate the genius of it and realize just how unique and imaginative this series really is. But still, I wish I would have read these books when I was in Elementary School. As a kid with an overactive imagination, I would have eaten these books up.
One thing I love most about this book is that I never really knew if the Bailey School kids' new teacher Mrs. Jeepers was truly a vampire or not. It could have easily been all coincidence... but there are certain creepy occurrences that made me wonder if she was a monster after all. The authors leave that up for the reader to decide, and I think that's a great idea.
This book is also a very quick read. It is super short (under 80 pages), so I was able to finish it in one 45 minute sitting. It's written very simply, but that's what adds to its charm. It keeps you turning the pages to see what adventures the kids will have as they try to figure out what's up with Mrs. Jeepers. It's also a book I'd recommend to kids (and adults!) who are looking for a fun Halloween read. It's cute and funny, but it has just the right amount of spookiness for young readers. I know I'll be reading many of these books this Halloween season.
FINAL VERDICT: 5 stars! -
publisher: Scholastic
middle grade fantasy
A class of third grade students at Bailey Elementary School are getting a new teacher after they ran off Mrs. Deedee. They get Mrs. Jeepers, an woman from Romania that wears a strange green brooch that seems to glow when she rubs it. Over the course of the book, the students learn more about her which makes them question whether or not she is a vampire. But surely not, right? I mean, vampires don't wear polka dots.
As I have recently said, I am getting to know several middle grade series that I am aware of but haven't read before. This beginning of the Bailey School Kids series was... fine. There is nothing really remarkable going on here but for a child who loves a series, familiar characters, mystery, and fantasy, they will probably gobble this up.
My main problem is that it includes stereotypes. Romania is a real country with people that probably want to be known for more than Dracula and their "strange accent". I have been looking at books for kids with an eye on diversity and representation and that really stuck out to me and made me uncomfortable. So while this series might be alright for some, I might try to find a good middle grade series that does a better job in that regard. I remember really loving Sachar's Wayside books when I was young and wondered how those would read to me today as I attempt to examine through a diversity lens. Would those be a good alternative, although there are fewer books to the series? Perhaps I should revisit those soon! -
When I was 8, The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids was a really popular series in my class that everyone used to borrow for library period. I was really excited when I finally got a chance to borrow Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots, the first book in this iconic series.
Listen, you know a book is iconic when you remember exactly what you were doing while you were reading it. And 20 years later, I still remember exactly how I felt when I opened this book up at home. I was gripped, mesmerized, spooked. I'd never before read a whole chapter book in one sitting, but here I was, and I was loving it. What bookworm can forget the first time they ever locked themselves in a room to experience a book with all their senses? For the next library period, I got my hands on every available copy of a Bailey School Kids book that my school library had and read them all. I truly believe this series was my gateway to horror fiction at a young age. The Bailey School Kids paved the way for my Goosebumps addiction, along with Archie's Weird Mysteries, Scooby Doo, and so much more.
Reading this now as an adult, it definitely feels like a book for children. I've since read so much more shocking, scary, blood-freezing stories that this one just registers as okay to me now. But I still remember the place that The Bailey School Kids had in my heart. Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots might not be much for scare factor as an adult, but it definitely changed 8-year-old me's life. -
This juvenile fiction book is about a third grade class who drove their teacher nuts. "Mrs.Deedee had not actually gone nuts, but she had quit her job after she found her top desk drawer full of shaving cream." After Mrs.Deedee left, the students got a new teacher who was weird and strange. She wore a green amulet around her neck, and the students thought she was a vampire.
Debbie Dadey, the author, use a great amount of detail. On the second page of the book, Dadey describes the incident with the shaving cream by saying: "She had been looking for a pencil when she stuck her hands in the mint-scented shaving cream. 'I can't stand it anymore!' Mrs.Deedee screamed. She held her hands up like a surgeon and looked around the room. A wild look came into her eyes." The author did a great job by describing what what kind of shaving cream it was, as well as how Mrs.Deedee reacted. As a reader, I was able to picture the incident and follow the story. I think that I could use this in my own writing, as well as allow my students to use it in their writing. This could definitely be used as a mentor text or in a mini lesson for students to write with detail. It is student appropriate and they could learn a lot from the book. -
Kallie is reading this whole series, so I read the first book so I could know what it's all about. I have a hard time reviewing kids' books as an adult. I'm obviously not the target audience. Kallie, however, loves them.
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I don't remember much about this series, only that I really enjoyed them. It was a fun story for young readers and the writing style was great. Although, I do remember that I really REALLY loved this one!
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I remember being obsessed with this book series as a young kid. I can't for the life of me remember where in the series I stopped reading them, but I remember loving the ones I did read. This and the Thoroughbred series (
A Horse Called Wonder is book one!) were two of my favourite series growing up! They're great books for kids. Definitely recommend!
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I loved this series as a kid and it’s fun to go back as an adult an experience it again. Tbh I’d probably also considered a strange adult if I lived in Bailey city.
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(I now maintain a blog just for my kid-lit reviews. Find it at
http://kidlit4adults.blogspot.com .)
A friend has convinced me to try my hand this year for the first time at writing children's literature; but I don't actually know anything about children's literature, so am starting the process among other ways by first reading a stack of popular books that have been recommended to me. Today's titles are from yet another of these series of endless chapter-books designed for grade-schoolers, in this case all of them co-penned by a duo of friends who used to be grade-school teachers themselves; this is one of the types of employment I myself am hoping to find in the industry, to kick out such easy-reading 30,000-word titles once a month or so, which is why I'm reading so many of them these days. Now, admittedly, this particular series is based on a high-concept that I find tough to imagine lasting for as long as it has; basically, each title features yet another new adult in the lives of our middle-class child heroes who may or may not be a mythological creature, exhibiting strange traits throughout the story but never just coming out and saying whether they're a mummy or vampire or whatever. (And in fact there are almost 75 books in this series now, nearly all of them featuring a different mythological creature, which just on its own is pretty impressive.) These are very much for the younger end of the chapter-book crowd, in my opinion from ages 7 to about 9 or 10, featuring lots of illustrations and a ton of silly humor; and to their credit Dadey and Jones are much more interested in simply being entertaining than in trying to teach a moral lesson, usually a common trait among books for this age group. They're nothing special, but certainly readable and fun, and come recommended for younger readers looking for their first dose of genre excitement but wanting to avoid dark material altogether. -
This book is so awesome I swear it was written for me! How have I not read these books before?? Somehow I missed the Bailey School Kids series growing up :(
So far this series reminds me a lot of Louis Sachar's Wayside School series (which is equally awesome!). Can't wait to check out more Bailey School Kids books!! -
i read half this book but want to finish it .
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Awwww reading this takes me back to my childhood, bittersweet memory's
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I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVEN'T MARKED THESE AS "READ" YET!!! This was one of my absolute favorite series growing up, and I read them again, and again and again! So quirky and weird and funny! I just found a whole box of them while my mom and I were cleaning up and AAAAH I MISS THEM SO MUCH!
For parents: These books are perfectly clean. None of the people the kids imagined were secretly "monsters" were ever actually monsters. There was always a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything. These stories are just good ol' silly fun. XD -
I love this series (it's a good inspiration for what I want to write and I loved them all when I was younger) and got a copy for a student's birthday.
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I enjoyed this book because I liked the part when the people in Mrs. Jeeper's class thought that Mrs. Jeeper was a vampire. But Mrs. Jeeper was actually wasn't. Mrs. Jeeper is kind of weird.
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I loved reading this series in elementary school and it was a quick read to get me out of my reading rut.
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Read this to my kids last night. It was terrible.
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What a fun book to revisit, 20+ years after first reading it!
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I read all of these as a child I think it's where I fell in love with the supernatural I am loving rereading them I hope I can find them all
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I like this concept generally, but Eddie as a main POV is so insufferable.
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It was pretty good. Short and sweet to the point, but a good introduction to mystery.
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Eddie is a jerk
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Reliving my childhood with this series, and kicking it off with a strange new third grade teacher, thought to be a vampire by her students.
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Doesn’t really stand the test of time. Would not read this aloud again.
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Perfect light quarantine nostalgia read. Totally held up to my memories of it; perhaps the start of love of horror?
