Ghosts Don't Eat Potato Chips is the fifth Bailey School Kids book, released in September 1992.
The book focuses on the kids taking care of Eddie's Great-aunt Mathilda, who's fallen sick. Soon, strange happenings ensue, which the kids theorize to be the work of Mathilda's late husband Jasper's ghost.
The book provides examples of:
- Covers Always Lie: The original cover does nothing to convey just how realistically and supernaturally frightening the story is, and gives a false sense of Great-uncle Jasper appearing more human than he is.
- Darker and Edgier: This is one of the darkest books in the series, from featuring a monster that's not only vaguely human but the only one that's an actual monster (even if Jasper is good), and also features Eddie's aunt Mathilda almost dying because she can't afford health insurance. In fact, Mathilda probably would've died had the kids not found her in time.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Great-uncle Jasper is one of the most sinister looking creatures in the series, and the only one to be outright confirmed by the narrative to be a monster, but he's only trying to help his wife and is by far the nicest of the supernatural entities the kids encounter.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Unlike virtually every other installment in the series, this one features involvement from an unambiguously real ghost, that of Great-uncle Jasper. But the kids chock it all up to coincidence.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In a notable departure from the other books, the supernatural being is real this time around.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Eddie's Great-Uncle Jasper is confined to the attic of his widow's house and invisible most of the time, although he can make himself visible briefly, and interact with things like potato chips.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Mathilda gradually softens up to the kids as she spends time with them, but her illness still causes some understandable frustration on her part. She becomes much nicer after she recovers in the hospital.
