My 90's and Early 2000's Experience: The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids (1990)

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I had a busy weekend with a couple of friends of mine. I was out with Brad yesterday and I picked up some awesome 90's and early 2000's stuff while I was out. I'll be talking about them in later posts. Today though I'm going to talk about a book series that I used to read when I was a kid that ran from 1990 to 2005. So let's get into it.

The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids was a series of books created by Marcia T. Jones and Debbie Dadey. Each book has kids from Bailey Elementary School dealing with an adult in their lives that might be a mythical being such as Gargoyles, Vampires, Werewolves, etc. The first book in the series, Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots was published in 1990, though I can't find an exact date for when the book came out. 

 The series ended with Book #51, Dragons Don't Throw Snowballs, which was published sometime in 2005. Again, I can't find an exact date for the book's publication, not even a particular month. Being that this series never had a TV show or movie adaptation, it definitely wasn't as popular, or possibly as well known, as Goosebumps, Animorphs, Sweet Valley High, or The Baby-Sitter's Club were. Despite that though, Scholastic re-released some of the books with new covers in the early 2000's, as Scholastic tended to do with their books, updating the covers from time to time. Especially their older book series like the Bruno & Boots/Macdonald Hall series.

In 1996, a nine book series, called The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids Super Special began publication. These books focused heavily on the kids's teacher, Mrs. Jeepers, who is supposedly a Vampire and first appeared in Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots. The series ended in 1997.

A third series, known as The Bailey School Kids Holiday Specials began in 2001 with Swamp Monsters Don't Chase Wild Turkeys. As the title of the series suggests these are all holiday themed. There's a Thanksgiving one, a Halloween one, a Christmas one, a St. Patrick's Day one, and an Easter one. The five book series ended in 2003.

There was also a Jr. Chapter Book series called The Bailey School Kids, which started in 2006 with Ghosts Do Splash in Puddles. This series was after my time reading these books, so I had no idea that it exists until today. The series ended with Book #9, Snow Monsters Do Drink Hot Chocolate, in 2009.

In 2021, Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots was adapted into a graphic novel. Scholastic had done this with The Baby-Sitter's Club, Animorphs, and Goosebumps, though so far only a handful of those books have been published. I don't know how many of The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids books were adapted into graphic novels, I just know of the first one, as I have the Free Comic Book Day free preview issue that came out that year.

My first experience with this series was when my mom bought Gargoyles Don't Drive School Buses, which is the 19th book in the series, for me either from the Scholastic Book Order or I bought it at the Scholastic Book Fair. The book was published in 1996, so it was definitely after that when I got it. I just don't remember when I got it exactly. I remember loving it though as I loved Gargoyles thanks to the 1994 Disney animated series, Gargoyles. The concept of a Gargoyle, who could turn himself to stone whenever he wanted, driving a school bus is crazy, but fun at the same time. 

The second book of the series that I got, which was #14 in the series, was called Monsters Don't Scuba Dive, and was published in 1995. The kids go off to Camp Lone Wolf, where they had been in the second book of the series, Werewolves Don't Go to Summer Camp, only this time they have a new Scuba Diving instructor, who is supposedly a Sea Monster. Here's the thing, I don't remember liking this book as much as I did Gargoyles Don't Drive School Buses because I didn't read it as often as I did the other one. I also don't remember the story quite as well.

I only ever got these two books in the series because I got them before I got into Goosebumps, Animorphs, and Star Wars books, though not too long before I got into Star Wars books. Plus I was always reading The Hardy Boys, so I didn't really even think about getting more Bailey School Kids books since I had so many other books anyway. It was still a fun series and not as scary as the Goosebumps books were. 

And that's it for me for today. Just another fun look at some 90's nostalgia. I'll be back on Wednesday to take a brief look at the Star Wars stuff that I got over the weekend since I actually got some pretty cool things. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.