Cupid Doesn't Flip Hamburgers-The Bailey School Kids
Author: Debbie Dadey and Marcia Jones
Publisher: Scholastic-A Little Apple Paperback
Copyright: 1995
Pages: 76
Reading Level: 3
Genre: Children’s Chapter Books
Rating: ****

Summary:
Nothing is ever normal at Bailey Elementary. From their teacher Miss Jeepers to now the new lunch lady Mrs. Rosenbloom things just keep getting weirder. It all started in Miss Jeepers class when everyone was making valentines. Eddie was bored stiff with the girlyness of valentines and instead of making his valentine he crumpled it up and threw it into Carey’s blonde head. Carey yelled back at Eddie, and Mrs. Jeepers turned around, flashed her green eyes at Carey and rubbed her brooch. Mrs. Jeepers is a strict teacher, and whenever one of her students does something out of line she will flash her green eyes, and rub her brooch. Lunch time finally rolls around, and they line up, making predictions what the new cafeteria lady will have for lunch. They enter the cafeteria to see an explosion of red, hearts, and anything valentines related all over the cafeteria. Even the food is red, heart shaped meat loaf and jello, and an apple and tomato cut into the shape of a heart, all thanks to Mrs. Rosenbloom who embodied everything valentines herself. Her red hair, big red lips, red dress and so on. Though the food is good, things start changing around Bailey School. Everyone is acting like they were bit by a love bug, but the only one who seems to be noticing is Eddie. Especially since his arch enemy Carey is suddenly drooling over him. On top of that even Mrs. Jeepers and Prinicple Davis are acting different and love struck. Eddie decides that it all has to be due to Mrs. Rosenbloom, everyone she gives a cookie to and heart pin can do nothing but ooo and aww over some new love interest. He isn’t about to let this happen though, he has to stop it. Just when he is thinking of a plan, Howie approaches him and says he thinks he is right, Mrs. Rosenbloom has given everyone a love potion. For the rest of the day the boys avoid anyone with a heart pin, and after school they head to Eddies house. Here they come up with the solution. They are going to give everyone the opposite of love which is “sugar and spice and everything nice”, they are going to make something with puppy dog tails and more, and slip it into Mrs. Rosenbloom love potion cookies. After making quite the concoction, they slip it into Mrs. Rosenbloom cookies the next day at school, but Eddie almost gets caught. She didn’t notice he added anything to her cookies, but she managed to make him eat a cookie and pin a heart on him. Now Eddie is as head over heels for Carey as she is him, and the fate of Bailey Elementary is left to Howie. Thankfully the cookies get handed out and everyone takes a big bite into them, and the spell is broken. Everything sour and awful in those cookies Howie and Eddie made brings everyone right back to their senses. Mrs. Rosenbloom is never seen or heard of, for now at least, and everyone at Bailey is back to being enemies or friends as it should be, and was.

Who would benefit from reading this?
This book is good for any elementary age child, boy or girl alike. This is just one of a pretty large series about the Bailey School Kids. It is a great book for kids to read on their own, and it not too long, but long enough to last them for a couple days to weeks reading.

Potential problems/conflicts:
The only problem I could potential see would be that the kids in this series have a lot of personality and can be mean and pick on each other. So parents may not want their kids reading that.

My reaction:
I read this book and many others in the series when I was a kid and it was fun to go back and read one again. The characters brought me back to being a kid, and how I viewed the world. The books are a quick read now, but I remember taking a week or two to read them every night before bed as a kid. Fun stories, you won’t want to put the book down. I found myself laughing to myself several times.