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Graveyard School #1
Don't Eat the Mystery Meat!
When a new lunchroom superintendent arrives at Graveyard School, the town's pets begin disappearing, and the school meals reach an all-time low, sixth-graders Stacey and Park wonder if there's a connection. Original.
116 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1994
5 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
About the author
Tom B. Stone
53 books30 followersTom B. Stone is a pseudonym used by the published author Nola Thacker.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 29, 2021
właśnie przypomniałam sobie o istnieniu tych książek!! Cóż to była za frajda gdy je czytałam....
koniecznie muszę zrobić reread
koniecznie muszę zrobić reread
September 4, 2023
Kolejna fajna historia z serii. Przyjemni bohaterowie, sporo akcji i - tym razem - niejednoznaczne zakończenie. Może to i dobrze, bo sam pomysł na tę część jest dość brutalny i jednoznaczne rozwiązanie zagadki mogłoby być traumatyczne dla młodego czytelnika.
October 9, 2017
I'm not gonna add all 28 books to my library but ages ago, when I fell head over heels in love with books and reading, I read all of them. It'll forever be series of books that got me into reading and into living for the stories they hold. It was scary, fun and crazy for a kid I was :D
September 30, 2012
when i was a kid i used to read these books (graveyard school) and i loved them!
July 29, 2019
It’s funny how different perspective is when you are 11 years old versus 32 years old. I absolutely loved this book when I was a kid. I only read a few books in the series but it was one of my favorites in middle school. Now, I wonder what I ever saw in it.
As outrageous as many stories can be... a great writer can make them almost believable! This felt corny, forced, and too unbelievable. Definitely a book for kids.
Basically, the lunchroom manager is cooking animals in her food which is totally disgusting! Park and Stacey get suspicious when animals go missing then Park’s best friend, Jaws, goes missing as well. He loves Ms. Stokes’ food unlike the other students at Grover Elementary AKA Graveyard School. Park and Stacey go on a mission to find Jaws. They hide in her hearse-like vehicle and find him at her house! She kidnapped him and was fattening him up! She resigned but ends up repeating the same behavior in a town not too far away.
As outrageous as many stories can be... a great writer can make them almost believable! This felt corny, forced, and too unbelievable. Definitely a book for kids.
Basically, the lunchroom manager is cooking animals in her food which is totally disgusting! Park and Stacey get suspicious when animals go missing then Park’s best friend, Jaws, goes missing as well. He loves Ms. Stokes’ food unlike the other students at Grover Elementary AKA Graveyard School. Park and Stacey go on a mission to find Jaws. They hide in her hearse-like vehicle and find him at her house! She kidnapped him and was fattening him up! She resigned but ends up repeating the same behavior in a town not too far away.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 22, 2025
It’s finally time to finish this ripoff round, with some Graveyard School. Today we get to go back to the first book, published in September 1994. Let’s see how this creepy school started.
School has started up for the year, and Stacey Carter and Park Addams aren’t happy about it. This year, Grove Hill has a new lunchlady, who makes these odd meals that keep tasting worse. Park and his pals Jaws don’t mind the meals but admit something is off about them. At the same time, pets have been vanishing around town, such as one belonging to Polly Hannah’s family. Could the pets be connected to the lunch lady’s odd food?
This was good, in a basic kind of way. First entries in these stories tend to be among the weaker ones, since they are just getting started. This fared better than most, but isn’t one of the most memorable ones either. It’s decently paced and doesn’t waste too much time. Stacy and Park have a solid dynamic, and that carried the book. They both get funny lines.
For the first book, it doesn’t build up the school as much as you’d think, but it does a good at introducing the stuff. We get the introduction of Dr. Morthouse, Hannibal Lucre, and Basement. Lucre even has a decent sized role where he has an odd romance with the lunchlady, Mrs. Stoker.
The missing pet mystery works well, and the sort of revel of what is going on is a dark idea. But the 3rd does slightly fall apart. We don’t much of a motive rant from Stoker and there isn’t exactly a big climax. The way Stoker is taken care of kinda weak, oddly enough. I like the final note, it was a cute twist but the actual wrapup is oddly handled.
The idea of what she is doing works, it just feels like it has the kid gloves on and doesn’t take the idea far enough. Graveyard School would later stick to lighter idea that fit the lighter nature of the series better. Still, it mostly works and doesn’t give me too much to complain about. There’s this kid Jaws who kinda sucks but that’s the point at least.
I enjoyed this one, it’s just nothing too special. I’ve now read the first entry of all these series, and they tend to work decently enough, but are lesser ones for each series. Weakest was Deadtime Stories Terror in Tiny Town while oddly Shivers had the best with Enchanted Attic.
Didn’t expect that. A nice start to Graveyard School, just not one you need to rush to read. And that ends this round, thank god. Mostly middling good ones this time. I fear maybe we’ve covered the best of these series, but I’m hoping for surprises going forward. Next round should be around Summer, perhaps.
No idea what the next read is, could be a bit, I don’t know, honestly. See ya for whatever is next, though.
School has started up for the year, and Stacey Carter and Park Addams aren’t happy about it. This year, Grove Hill has a new lunchlady, who makes these odd meals that keep tasting worse. Park and his pals Jaws don’t mind the meals but admit something is off about them. At the same time, pets have been vanishing around town, such as one belonging to Polly Hannah’s family. Could the pets be connected to the lunch lady’s odd food?
This was good, in a basic kind of way. First entries in these stories tend to be among the weaker ones, since they are just getting started. This fared better than most, but isn’t one of the most memorable ones either. It’s decently paced and doesn’t waste too much time. Stacy and Park have a solid dynamic, and that carried the book. They both get funny lines.
For the first book, it doesn’t build up the school as much as you’d think, but it does a good at introducing the stuff. We get the introduction of Dr. Morthouse, Hannibal Lucre, and Basement. Lucre even has a decent sized role where he has an odd romance with the lunchlady, Mrs. Stoker.
The missing pet mystery works well, and the sort of revel of what is going on is a dark idea. But the 3rd does slightly fall apart. We don’t much of a motive rant from Stoker and there isn’t exactly a big climax. The way Stoker is taken care of kinda weak, oddly enough. I like the final note, it was a cute twist but the actual wrapup is oddly handled.
The idea of what she is doing works, it just feels like it has the kid gloves on and doesn’t take the idea far enough. Graveyard School would later stick to lighter idea that fit the lighter nature of the series better. Still, it mostly works and doesn’t give me too much to complain about. There’s this kid Jaws who kinda sucks but that’s the point at least.
I enjoyed this one, it’s just nothing too special. I’ve now read the first entry of all these series, and they tend to work decently enough, but are lesser ones for each series. Weakest was Deadtime Stories Terror in Tiny Town while oddly Shivers had the best with Enchanted Attic.
Didn’t expect that. A nice start to Graveyard School, just not one you need to rush to read. And that ends this round, thank god. Mostly middling good ones this time. I fear maybe we’ve covered the best of these series, but I’m hoping for surprises going forward. Next round should be around Summer, perhaps.
No idea what the next read is, could be a bit, I don’t know, honestly. See ya for whatever is next, though.
April 29, 2022
When a new lunch lady arrives at Grove “Graveyard” Elementary and starts serving disgusting food, sixth graders Park and Stacey suspect it has something to do with their town’s sudden incidences of pet-nappings.
This one wasn’t so great. The characters were fine, but it was a typical Goosebumps ripoff, and I didn’t think the story was developed enough. As-is, the story should have ended with the kids being mistaken and there being a plausible explanation; that’s what I expected up until the very end. For the kids’ suspicions to be correct, the author should have explored the concept and especially lunch lady Stoker a lot more. We never get any reason why she was doing this, the several mentions to her having references never pay off, and the final chapter needed some explanation, because I don’t understand why the kids apparently didn’t even try to tell the truth.
Probably not going to try the rest of this series anytime soon.
This one wasn’t so great. The characters were fine, but it was a typical Goosebumps ripoff, and I didn’t think the story was developed enough. As-is, the story should have ended with the kids being mistaken and there being a plausible explanation; that’s what I expected up until the very end. For the kids’ suspicions to be correct, the author should have explored the concept and especially lunch lady Stoker a lot more. We never get any reason why she was doing this, the several mentions to her having references never pay off, and the final chapter needed some explanation, because I don’t understand why the kids apparently didn’t even try to tell the truth.
Probably not going to try the rest of this series anytime soon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 13, 2021
It used to be more fun reading this as a 12 year old
December 10, 2021
Se me hizo muy entretenido, realmente lo disfruté. No me gustó tanto como "Un fantasma en el baño de varones", pero sí me divertí leyéndolo.
June 1, 2015
Soobie a 12 anni:
Abbastanza meglio dell'altro (n.d.r.: La maestra è morta di paura!). A scuola arriva un nuovo sovrintendente alla mensa che prepara piatti misteriosi. Quando cani e altri animali [illeggibile] scompaiono Stacey e park si mettono ad indagare.
May 16, 2019
I would probably give this book one and a half stars. The atmosphere reminds me of Betsy Haynes's Bone Chillers series, and Don't Eat the Mystery Meat! is similar in content to Back to School, book three of that series. A good amount of suspense is maintained throughout this book.
September 21, 2013
This book contains a weird story. And I read it not so long after another weird book. So, after I finished this book I feel like I had read too many weird stories lately.
The story is not so special. Very predictable and not so thrilling. But it can be fun for a light reading.
The story is not so special. Very predictable and not so thrilling. But it can be fun for a light reading.
August 7, 2019
man, i love these series
weird, funny and adventurous
i wish i could be 6 again
weird, funny and adventurous
i wish i could be 6 again
November 17, 2023
De mis primeros libros y de mis favoritos de ese entonces, definitivamente lectura dirigida para adolescentes, pero de fácil lectura y muy entretenido.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews