Mrs. Claus Doesn't Climb Telephone Poles

The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids Holiday Specials #3

by Marcia Thornton Jones, Marcia Thornton Jones

A clever new Holiday adventure in the best-selling series about the Bailey School Kids-complete with an extensive puzzle and activity section.

There are some pretty weird grown-ups living in Bailey City. But why is Mrs. Claus repairing telephone and cable wires in Bailey City after a big blizzard? And could Santa be so worried about her than he'd forget all about Christmas? The Bailey School Kids are going to find out?

Genres: Christmas, Fiction, Childrens, Mystery, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Adventure

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Marcia Thornton Jones has published 131 books for children with sales totaling more than 43 million copies world-wide. Her works include CHAMP (mid-grade novel), RATFINK (mid-grade novel), GODZILLA ATE MY HOMEWORK (chapter book), THE TALE OF JACK FROST (picture book) and LEPRECHAUN ON THE LOOSE (picture book). She is the co-author of seven popular series including The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids, Keyholders, Ghostville Elementary, The Bailey School Kids Jr. Chapter Books, Triplet Trouble, Bailey City Monsters, and The Barkley School for Dogs.

Marcia has been listed as a top 100 author by the Educational Paperback Association and selected for the Children’s Top 100 Books list by the National Education Association, International Reading Associations Children’s Choice Award. Marcia's books have received many honors and have appeared on on the Publisher's Weekly Bestsellers lists,

Marcia, a full time writer living in Lexington, Kentucky enjoys presenting at schools and conferences. As a veteran teacher with more than 20 years of experience, she easily relates the importance of writing to students of all ages.

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

So after watching what I'm sure will soon become a classic ,Violent Night. I thought the movie did need one thing and that was a Mrs clause cameo. but it never Happened.We did good nods to her but that's it. Not even post credit scenes. So I did the only logical thing anybody would do that needed a Mrs Clause fix. And that's read about Mrs. Clause. Now the only book I have that has anything thing to do with Mrs Clause is The Adventures Of The Bailey School Kids Mrs Clause Dosnt Climb Telephone Poles. The story begins with Eddie wanting to go speeding down deadmans hill on a sled while their is a big blizzard aproching. The kids end up seeing this lady working on some telephone poles ,because the phone lines and internet are down. The lady ends up introducing herself as Mrs Joy, a lady that says "hohoho" alot and stirs apple cider with a candy cane. She also is very good at fixing things. She fixes Eddie's sled at lightening speed.But all of this isn't positive. She always ends up bringing up her husband who doesn't seem to appreciate her anymore. Even tho she helps out a ton. They also spot her in a booth talking to a former character in this series named Eli, an elf.Or so they think an elf from Santa Dosnt Mop Floors, which I thought was cool. I also liked the cute nature of this book.It was an overload. Their is a scene where Mrs Joy goes down Deadmans Hill with Liza who is scared to race Eddie ,which I thought was just great. Other then that this little book was fine. This one didn't have any mythical creatures that were remotely scary, which is fine. It was a nice change of pace. The ending was also very sweet as for the activities in this one it has a memory game, a word search, and even a hot chocolate recipe. I enjoyed this one, but it wasn't anything spectacular. I give Mrs Claus Doesn't Climb Telephone Poles a three out of five stars .⭐⭐⭐

[Ellie Mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

I
LOVED this book mostly because of the hot chocolate recipe and that their was some sledding down i big hill and my favorite character won that sledding race!

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a couple of Bailey School Kids books recently (a series with which I had no former associations, having not read them as a kid, except that I remembered the iconic covers) and this one was easily my favorite of the lot. It has a lot of fun stuff:

A) a hangout spot for the kids that is pure Americana (the Burger Doodle--terrible name but, I dunno, I just like hangout spots in fiction aimed at young people, like The Max on Saved By the Bell or The Bronze in Buffy);

B) a made-up action figure that the stores can't keep on the shelves this holiday season (Bug Squashers from Zirlot--slightly more imaginative than the toy names writers usually come up with in stories revolving around that impossible-to-get Christmas present, like Turbo Man or Laser Man);

C) the old "sleds having model numbers" joke (the QT-10 and the L-B56), which is recycled from Calvin and Hobbes but hey it's still fun.

Eddie has a much shallower grasp of Christmas magic in this book than in Santa Claus Doesn't Mop Floors, as in the former he is given the gift of spending time with his busy father and in this one he just cares about a toy or whatever. But Joy, a.k.a. the prospective Mrs. Claus, is a much warmer figure than Mr. Jolly--she actually seems to enjoy spending time with the kids and helping them out with their problems, such as miraculously stitching together a toboggan that splintered into pieces after crashing into a lamppost, while S.C. didn't really seem to care if they lived or died. I also felt like this one has the most "child detective" action as the kids actively set about gathering clues rather than simply witnessing things and jumping to conclusions, as they do in the other books I read.

Also kind of funny to see that this series stuck around long enough to have to acknowledge the Internet.

[J.B. Mathias · Rating 2 out of 5]

The series normally deals with monsters so a Christmas story is an odd choice but there are ways for it to work. When they did Santa Clause in book #3 they still tried to make it at least kind of a creepy story and highlighted some of the creepier aspects of Santa. Like that he was always watching, and kept turning the temperature down making it too cold in the school. So they do Mrs Clause but the point of the story just seems to be to make Mrs Clause out to be a poor put upon housewife. They kind of make Santa out to be a bad guy who doesn't appreciate his wife, and make Mrs Clause sound like the reason there's a Christmas at all, and also write her as this brilliant engineer. It's the first time in the series where the creepy adult subject of the book is just a nice lady. Came across as off brand for the sake of feminism.

[paige turner ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was really cute. I do love me some Christmas stories. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy, even when it's not Christmas...and it's August.

The only thing though, was that Eddie was really mean. I mean really, really mean. He was acting like a total brat for most of this story, and no one warned him about what would happen if he was being naughty, which he was. How was this kid still on the nice list?

I know, it's a silly story, but still. I do like Eddie most of the time, but that kid needs a some sense knocked into him, sometimes.

[Emmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading (ie. slogging through) a couple Bailey School Kids Christmas-themed stories, I was starting to get not only burnt out, but frustrated, too. This was one of the better ones, certainly an improvement on the other titles I've explored (although not the best of the series). The argument for "Is Joy Mrs. Claus" felt convincing, and this was one of the few books that I feel pretty confident that she was in fact, who they suspect she was.

[Genevieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute story about 4 children who are having fun around Christmas time. One Eddie is kind of mean and does mean things when they meet a strange old lady. Liza works out Joy, the old lady is really Mrs Claus who is fighting with Santa.

This was a really cute story for kids with a few lessons in it as well. A great fast read.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read. Took a while to get to the Mrs. Claus part. And after that there wasn't a lot of investigating. It was the ending that I thought was good.

Still a nice Christmas read.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad I saved this one to read until December!

[Angel Torres · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very fun and endearing story.

[Hannah Peeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose to reread this for fun on my snow day. It was super nostalgic and I loved it. It kind of made me want to reread the whole series… did anyone else read these growing up?

[Becky (Never without a book) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really getting tired of Eddie and his nastiness

[Kate Lehenbauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite book, but it was a fun holiday read. We follow a group of friends who think they might have found Mrs. Claus. It was lighthearted and had a nice ending. A good one for girls and boys.

[Jessica Wyatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit better than the other one I read- still not an amazing book but decently fun

[Horace Mann Family Reading Challenge · Rating 5 out of 5]

When some kids see a lady fixing a telephone pole, whose named they learned was Joy. They think it's Mrs. Claus but they're not sure until Eddie gets a present from her on Christmas, which proves she is Mrs. Claus. L.A.

[Malia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, but it wasn't my favorite of the "Bailey School kids".

[Twyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

everyone thought mrs. claus was the one that was climbing the telephone poles and she was prbalt

[Paige Auge:) · Rating 1 out of 5]

At first I did not understand this book and honestly I wanted to quick reading this book. I was glad I sticked to this book. I loved it.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another quick Bailey School Kids tale. A lady resembling Mrs. Claus is fixing local telephone poles. Few people think so, until Eddie receives a present from her on Christmas Day.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was an awesome book! I loved it!

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this with Isaac. He enjoyed it, nothing special though.

[Victoria Hall]

Great