"Before you enter Wayside School, you should know that it's a thirty-story building with one classroom on each floor. Mrs. Jewls teaches the class on the thirtieth story. Mis Zaves teaches the class on the nineteeth story -- except there is no nineteenth story, so there is no Miss Zarves. Understand? Good. Explain it to Calvin." --

When her substitute teacher realizes she is struggling in math, Judy is sent to a math tutor at the local college and soon is completely into the spirit of college life.

A fifth-grader starts a newspaper with an editorial that prompts her burnt-out classroom teacher to really begin teaching again, but he is later threatened with disciplinary action as a result.

On the first day of school, a young boy expects only the worst when he discovers that his new teacher is the "monstrous" Mrs. Green.

When a British student-teacher arrives, A. J. and his friends wonder if her all-black clothing and love of blood sausage mark her as a vampire, while Mr. Granite simply hopes her musician-boyfriend will stay away long enough for a math lesson.

When Mr. Granite falls ill, A.J. and the gang endure a wacky week with a perpetually cheerful substitute teacher who wears a clown costume, uses hand puppets to talk, and uses magic tricks to saw students in half and make them disappear.

When boring Mr. Loring retires, A.J.'s class gets a new music teacher who raps, break-dances, and thinks he has what it takes to become a famous musician.

Lilly loves everything about school, especially her teacher, but when he asks her to wait a while before showing her new purse, she does something for which she is very sorry later.

"A.J. and his friends are starting fourth grade. A new school year means a new teacher, and Miss Banks may be their weirdest one yet. She won't stop playing practical jokes on the class, and A.J. has reached his breaking point. Will he and the gang learn to not fall for their teacher's tricks? Or will Miss Banks prevail as the ultimate prankster?"--

Throughout their fifth-grade year, a group of rambunctious students learns fable-like lessons from extraordinary activities, singing hamsters, and eccentric teachers, led by the inimitable Mr. Jupiter.