Aliens Don't Wear Braces

The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids #7

by Marcia Thornton Jones, Marcia Thornton Jones

The hugely popular early chapter book series re-emerges with a new look! Brand-new eye-catching cover art brings a modern feel to this classic monster series for young readers.

When the art teacher disappears after a strange display of flashing lights, it looks like Bailey Elementary is in a bind. But out of nowhere a mysterious and pale woman with silver-white hair and an unusual white outfit shows up to take her place. Soon after her arrival the objects of Bailey City start to lose their color, but the new teacher seems to be getting more colorful every day. Can the Bailey School kids stop Bailey City from being washed out before it's too late?

Genres: Childrens, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Fiction, Mystery, Chapter Books, Young Adult

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

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

[Rod Brown]

It's X-Files babies as third graders of Bailey Elementary School take on the substitute art teacher who may be a color-draining alien.

I can sort of see the appeal of the supernatural element to children, but most of the kid characters in the book are exceedingly bland except for the very irritating bad boy, Eddie.

[Nella ☾ of Bookland]

Meanest thing Eddie said in this book:

“Phe-ew,” Melody said when they walked out the door. “It smells like burnt rubber.”
“If you’d take a bath once in a while, maybe it wouldn’t stink so bad,” Eddie laughed.”

[Nicole Javvaji]

I've been reading this series to my niece and she really gets into the stories. She is a fan of ghost stories and mysteries, but she can not yet read independently. This is my first attempt to read her a non-picture book and I was pleasantly surprised that she stayed very interested throughout the story. Its a short chapter book, so we read a few chapters each day. There are occasional illustrations in the book, which helped us to visualize and make predictions. I definitely plan to read other books in this series with her.

[Grace]

In this circumstance, if Ms. Zork wasn’t an alien, these kids really just broke into their teachers house, destroyed her property and made her move 💀 but I’m 99% sure she was an alien, she was super suspicious. This was a great read! Super fun, one of my favorites so far. I just can’t believe how brave these kids are, literally admitting to having broke into their teachers house! It’s so funny.

[Arielle]

Nostalgic read! What a fun find at a used bookstore. Definitely want to read more of the series just for fun.

[Samantha Osborne]

This was a funny one

[Dean]

I love reading these to my kids! They get corny as the series goes on, but these early ones are great.

[Josh Epp]

I cackled out loud with this one. Enjoyed the story!!! Mrs z was cleverly written!

[Ashlyn]

I’m still loving the nostalgia from reading this series. I liked this one a bit more than the last one I read.

[paige turner ♡]

Once again, Eddie says he can prove whatever it is, isn't what they think it really is. And he fails.

This time a new art teacher mysteriously appears at their school, and their old art teacher goes missing. Mrs. Zork, the Bailey kids believe is an alien, especially Howie.
Especially after Mrs. Zork touches Mrs. Jeepers' broach and takes all her strange powers away.

Apparently nobody messes around with Mrs. Jeepers and gets away with it. It appears that Mrs. Jeepers is the only monster that's allowed to stay at their school.
But then again, Mrs. Jeepers is just there to teach, and not take things or cause trouble. Like Mrs. Zork.

Mrs. Zork appears to be stealing all the colours in the town.

I really thought that Mrs. Zork would have fought back to keep her colours, or I thought Mrs. Jeepers would have done something.

I don't know. This one was entertaining, but all these books are still lacking something.

It doesn't really take away my enjoyment, but it still just leaves me wanting something more.

[Alexis]

You know, as much as I like this series and love a good dip into nostaligia, this book didn't quite hit the spot for me.

First of all, I can't explain why, but the kids didn't seem to be as good friends in this book as I remember them being in the rest of the series. Now, this might be because it's only the 7th book in the series and maybe they're not total besties though, but I'm not sure about that and it might be that they were just written with less chemistry in this book.

I also feel like for the most part, they spent the majority of the book gaslighting poor Howie, which was crazy.

Honestly, maybe I'm just less into aliens, or maybe I was in a bad mood when I read this, but I don't know...¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Of course, I enjoyed a blast from the past, but if I had kids I would actively skip this book in the series.

[Hannah Watson]

I adored this book as a kid in the 90s, and I still loved it when I read it to my own elementary school kids. The whole concept of the alien's mission is absolutely brilliant. As a kid, it helped shape my expectations for scifi and set me up well for Ursula K LeGuin.

This book is classic Bailey School Kids. The kids personalities shine, and it builds well on Howie's knowledge of supernatural lore. It does the nice walk between "Is she an alien or isn't she", and I love the dynamic with Mrs. Jeepers here. It is a thoughtful way to build on cannon. Great book!

[Michelle]

3.5 stars

Eddie is just the classic class clown.

And following this premise - these kids are 3rd graders. Imagine your third grade (8 year old) child is sneaking out with their friends at night to break into their substitute teachers garage to blow it up? These books are wild.

This one seemed the most like the adult was really the "monster" that the kids believed her to be - if only because if she was just a regular human, she would have pressed charges on those two kids - instead of just "moving"

[Ephiny Jones]

I grew up on the Bailey School Kids books, and I absolutely ate 'em up. They were the series I always searched for first at the Book Fair's, and I still have quite a few of 'em to this day. Heck, I still remember this one the best! Just the imaginary used, with her being so pale and white and awkward, and the "draining" of the colors... Loved it! I'm planning on giving it a re-read next month.

[Anissa]

I’m reading these to my nieces and nephew and while “sci-fi”ness(aliens) of it all kept the kids interested when comparing this to Genies don’t ride bicycles, I don’t feel like there were as many logical/excusable reasons for things happening. Idk seems to take away from it a bit for me. Will keep reading the series as I come across it.

[Denise Kettering]

The kids at Bailey Street School are dealing with an apparent alien when Mrs. Zork shows up and strange things begin to happen around the school. The kids investigate and come to their own conclusions and decide that they might need to act. This is a strange little story and I really wish the kids were a bit more likeable, but my kid enjoyed this sort of sci-fi paranormal book.

[Hannah Belyea]

A mysterious woman with white hair and braces shows up to teach art at Bailey Elementary after the original teacher vanishes, but the third graders believe she may be an alien stealing all the colour out of their city! Dadey is sure to excite young readers with this colourful entry!

[Caleb Abel]

The research continues.

This was quite cute. I remember checking these out from the library a lot when I was in third grade and loving them. Probably would've been 4 stars but the ending seemed pretty rushed.

[Becca]

Aliens being real in the BSKU is probably the most grounded thing going on tbh. It's actually funnier if she's not an alien and two elementary schoolers did extreme property damage to an unfortunate sub.

[Vanessa]

This story was vey interesting and I really enjoyed reading. I loved how the author didn't say whether she was an alien or not at the end, which made me able to keep predicting the truth.

[Madi Spencer]

I was a huge fan of Bailey School Kids when I was in elementary school but I guess I missed this one! This was such a fun and quick read!

[Alex]

Cute as always!

[ma(die)na 🙌]

oh my god wait did i find the book,, ITS THIS

[Lakshmi]

Its so good 😊

[Kara Lynn]

I’ve been reading this series to my nephew and it is so much fun to be able to share these books from my childhood with him!

[Laura Danielle]

It was a good book. I remember reading it in elementary school.

[Emmy]

Definitely an alien.

[Joni]

Good suspense

[Danielle]

This was a fun, lowkey high-stakes volume.

[Hope Anderson (HopelessBookAddict)]

The kids annoyed me in this one but still a fun story.