Debbie Dadey was born on May 18, 1959 in Kentucky. Prior to pursuing a full-time writing career, she was head librarian at an elementary school. She is known for co-authoring the Adventures of the Bailey School Kids series. Her co-author Marcia Thornton Jones was a teacher at the same elementary school when they started writing together. The first title they wrote together was Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots and from this emerged The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids. Even though they no longer live near each other they are still collaborating on titles. Together they are writing two new series, The Triplet Trouble series and the Bailey City Monsters series. She currently lives in… Illinois.
Marcia Thornton Jones was born in 1958 in Joliet, Illinois. After graduating with high distinction from the University of Kentucky, she became an elementary-school teacher. In the course of her teaching career, Jones has taught first grade, third grade, computer lab, reading, writing, and gifted and talented classes. She also returned to school herself, receiving her Master's degree in 1987 from Georgetown College. Jones always thought of writing, but it wasn't until she met fellow teacher Debbie Dadey, that she really got started. The two began writing during their lunch period, without much success. One day their students were all misbehaving, and the way Jones and Dadey saw it, they… would have to sprout horns, blow smoke out of their noses, and grow ten feet tall if they wanted the kids to pay attention. That thought gave them the idea to write a story about a teacher whose students think she's a monster. Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots, published in 1990, became the first book in the popular Adventures of the Bailey School Kids series, which has since expanded to include more than 40 books. They have also written a related series, Bailey School Monsters, and a different series for younger readers, Triplet Trouble. Jones now collaborates with Dadey long distance, from her home in Lexington, Kentucky. There she is director of a school computer lab and continues to teach.
Author and illustrator John Steven Gurney grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He studied art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and drew caricatures on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey during the summers. While in college, he won a national poster contest for Molson's Golden Ale which appeared in Rolling Stone magazine. It was seen by the art directors at Ariel Books and led to his first picture book assignment. He is the illustrator of over 100 children's books including all of the titles in The Bailey School Kids and The A to Z Mysteries series. His illustrations have also appeared in children's magazines like Cricket, Babybug, and Ladybird as well as non-children's… magazines like TV Guide and National Lampoon. He also illustrated the board game Guess Who for Milton Bradley. He currently lives in Brattleboro, Vermont with his wife and two children.