Debbie Dadey

Debbie Dadey is the author and co-author of more than 182 books, including the Publishers Weekly bestselling "The Adventure of the Bailey School Kids" series, which has over 25 million books in print, as well as "The Worst Name in Third Grade," "The Ghostville Elementary series," and "The Swamp Monster in Third Grade" series. She also teamed up with her son, Nathan Dadey, to write "The Slime Wars."

Debbie and her co-author Marcia Thornton Jones love classrooms, even if those classrooms are filled with ghosts or monsters like "Ghostville Elementary" or "The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids." These best-selling authors were once teachers in the same elementary school in Lexington, KY. Marcia was a reading teacher and Debbie was the head librarian when they decided they wanted to write for children. The two wrote every day while their students were eating lunch. But one fateful (and frustrating) day changed the direction of their lives forever. The kids were acting like little monsters, so Marcia and Debbie figured they would have to sprout horns, blow smoke out of their noses, and grow ten feet tall just to get the kids to pay attention! The idea made them laugh so they decided to write a story about a teacher who might be a monster. That first book, "Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots," grew into "The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids."

Marcia still lives in Kentucky, but Debbie now lives in Pennsylvania. How do they continue to collaborate? "We use the hot-potato method," they explain. "We start with a brief outline. Then we take turns writing chapters. We send them to each other using e-mail. When the other person has the story, we say it's their 'hot potato.' Debbie Dadey currently lives in Furlong, PA with her husband, three children and two dogs.