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"The Bailey School Kids," also known as BSK, book series would be great to incorporate into a first grade or second grade classroom! This series follows around four friends, Liza, Howie, Melody, and Eddie, as they interact with some pretty peculiar characters in their town. These pals encounter an assortment of people from Santa Claus to Hercules. Talk about interesting! With such a large book series, a teacher could very easily pick out different BSK books to read with her students. Through different online resources, I have found a great variety of activities students could complete while or after reading these books. Students could rename the story or completely change the plot in order to create a brand new book of their own! The teacher could also lead the students in discussions on comparing the "strange" character from one BSK book to the next (example: comparing Santa Claus to Hercules) or she could even ask students to list out reasons as to why the children in the story think the "strange" characters could actually be mythical creatures/people.
Frankenstein Doesn't Plant Petunias marks the first time that The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids has tackled a literary figure, as opposed to the mythical they normally cover--vampires, werewolves, Santa, leprechauns, and ghosts so far. And despite the title, Frankenstein Doesn't Plant Petunias goes to the trouble of clarifying for its young audience the difference between Dr. Frankenstein the mad scientist and Frankenstein's monster itself; both characters are present in the story, with Dr. Frankenstein using the name Dr. Victor and Frankenstein's monster using the name Frank--except, of course, when the kids are trying to figure out whether or not these two "weird grown-ups" are really Shelley's characters.
All in all, it's a very juvenile representation of the monster, which is obviously to be expected since it's a children's chapter book; you're not going to find significant exploration of Shelley's original themes here. Instead, children who read the book are going to be introduced to Frankenstein's monster as an enigma: is he--here referred to as "Frank"--simply a mentally disabled individual, afflicted with some kind of intellectual handicap or developmental disorder? Or is he a flawed creation of the the obviously mad Dr. Victor? Either way, he's certainly treated as a sympathetic character, ultimately misunderstood though frightening to the (admittedly imaginative) child characters.
If your child is familiar with the Frankenstein story, Frankenstein Doesn't Plant Petunias could be a fun stepping stone toward eventually tackling Shelley's novel. If your child isn't familiar with the basic plotline or at least the character, however, I recommend checking out a children's adaptation first.
Ghosts Don't Eat Potato Chips is probably one of my least favorite Adventures of the Bailey School Kids books. You wouldn't think so if you knew how much I enjoyed ghost stories (The Haunted Hotel, Wait Till Helen Comes, Time Windows) as a child, but as far as ghost stories go, Ghosts Don't Eat Potato Chips isn't particularly frightening or even interesting. The atmosphere isn't creepy, really; instead, it's the same mysterious, maybe-it's-magic-but-it's-probably-not attitude of all the rest of the series' books. Which I don't mind when it comes to most of the Bailey School Kids books, but I suppose I expect more from a ghost story. Especially considering how saturated the subgenre is, as opposed to, for example, children's fiction about Frankenstein's monster, Nessie, Dracula, and the other creatures Dadey and Jones tackle.
That said, the story itself isn't bad. It's a good "beginner" ghost story, I suppose; something to give your kid if they want a quick, safe glimpse at the utmost point of the iceberg that is ghost fiction. There's nothing really frightening here other than the concept of ghosts itself; hell, Aunt Matilda, Eddie's mean old relative, is probably more frightening than that.
If your child/student/etcetera particularly enjoys this, I'd advise checking out The Haunted Hotel and The October Ogre by Ron Roy, The Haunting of Grade Three by Grace Maccarone, or Ghosts Beneath Our Feet by Betty Ren Wright next, all three of which are very tame and contain a spooky atmosphere and possible ghosts/monsters (I won't spoil which, if any, are debunked!).
If you have a Bailey School Kids fan in your life, there's no reason to avoid this book. It's completely typical Bailey School Kids fare, a simple pseudo-mystery that explores but neither debunks nor endorses supernatural elements and ultimately ends happily. It's just not as fun a story as some of the others in the series, as far as I'm concerned.
Leprechauns Don't Play Basketball is the fourth Adventures of the Bailey School Kids book and brings a bit of a unique twist to the premise. Whereas most books of the series are fairly straightforward--the kids get a new teacher or other authority figure, spend the book trying to prove and/or disprove that the adult in question is supernatural, and ultimately come to a conclusion that's shaky at best--Leprechauns introduces some world-building (that is unfortunately never seen again, as far as I know). As with most of the series world-building, this has to do with the children's third-grade teacher, Mrs. Jeepers.
Mrs. Jeepers, the teacher from Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots, takes center stage again in Leprechauns, this time set up as something of a hero opposite the new gym teacher at Bailey Elementary, Mr. O'Grady, a diminutive Irish man whose actions hint that he's actually a leprechaun. As the kids investigate whether there really are such things as leprechauns, they stumble across a myth unique to the Bailey School Kids universe that chronicles an ancient feud between vampires and leprechauns that seems to revolve around a particular green gem... a green gem exactly like the one Mrs. Jeepers wears on her brooch.
It's actually a fairly refreshing change from the series typical style, and I appreciate having Mrs. Jeepers cast in a heroic light for the first time (considering that, as a child reader of the series, I was always fond of her character). Like all the rest of the books, there's no real conclusion to the mystery; a series of very convenient coincidences seems to support the idea that Mr. O'Grady is indeed a leprechaun trying to steal Mrs. Jeepers brooch and possibly kill her, but the kids find no concrete evidence to prove the supernatural.
The series is quite formulaic and understandably juvenile given the audience, but I've always quite enjoyed it. It's not one of my absolute favorites, but it is a fond childhood memory of mine that I'll look to from time to time when I'm craving some nostalgia. The stories are short and simple but entertaining, and I appreciate the "decide for yourself" element of the books; if your kids wants the story to be supernatural, it can be. If they'd rather debunk the idea of the mystical, they can do that, too.
I definitely recommend the series to anyone looking for a new set of chapter books to check out. If you're looking to start reading The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids for the first time, I recommend starting with Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots; after that, there are only a handful of books that have to be read in order (Dracula Doesn't Drink Lemonade should come before Dracula Doesn't Rock N' Roll and Dracula Doesn't Play Kickball, as an example). Otherwise, it's a series that can be read fairly haphazardly, and I'd personally advocate checking out some of the later books after Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots to get a glimpse at the quality of writing the series ultimately settled on.
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