The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids: Aliens Don’t Wear Braces by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones

In this modern fantasy chapter book, Mrs. Jeeper’s students at Bailey Elementary School are interrupted during their science test by a flickering of the lights accompanied by a strange humming noise. They soon discover that their art teacher has mysteriously disappeared. However, about this same time, a woman with white hair and shiny braces walks into the office and offers to fill in for the missing art teacher. After Mrs. Zora was hired as the new art teacher, the students at Bailey Elementary started to notice that the school was beginning to lose its color, from the paintings in the hallway to the flowers outside. It seemed that Mrs. Zora was even taking the color off of student’s shirts and hair! The students began to wonder whether or not Mrs. Zora was an alien that came there to steal all of their colors. Some of the students decided that they were going to follow Mrs. Zora home one evening to see for themselves if she was indeed an alien or not. Much to their surprise, the students found what looked like an alien space craft hidden in her garage! A couple of students went back to Mrs. Zora’s house later on to try and get the colors back that she had been stealing from Bailey Elementary. But when Mrs. Zora suddenly appears, the students panic and hit a button that made what looked like a space craft explode. When they returned to school the following day, the students were informed that Mrs. Zora would no longer be teaching at Bailey Elementary, because she had so much damage to her house from the explosion of her kiln (her heater that she used to make pottery). Like the other Bailey School Kids book, I believe students can relate to this book, in that they probably have all had a teacher that they believed seemed a little strange. In addition, I found this book to be very interesting. The story line kept me engaged and wanting to read more!