Four fifth-grade students--a geek, a class clown, a teacher's pet, and a slacker--as well as their teacher and mothers, each relate events surrounding a computer programmed to complete homework assignments.

A.J. believes his new peewee football coach is crazy after she demands the team does push-ups in the mud and tells them to lift up a car, but when she wants to put girls on the team, A.J. thinks the coach is going too far.

The annual Ella Mentry School fundraiser for new school equipment finds organizer Ms. Sue compelling the teachers to sell everything from sausages and cheesy popcorn to dead goldfish until her efforts go too far.

After budget cuts threaten the art and music programs at Ella Mentry School, as well as some services, groundskeeper Burke finds gold and "gilver" on the playground, causing a modern-day gold rush.

On Career Day at Ella Mentry School, local reporter Mrs. Lilly helps A.J. and his fellow third-graders start a school newspaper, but their efforts have unexpected, and terrible, consequences.

With guidance from Miss Brown, a teacher who is an expert on creativity, the third grade class at Ella Mentry School builds a car and a bridge to compete in a Brain Games competition against Dirk School.

"A. J. and the Ella Mentry School gang learn some unusual self-defense moves from a wacky teacher who thinks he's an action hero"--

When the teachers of Ella Mentry School go on strike, A. J. and the gang meet a new principal who does not believe in rules and says that the students do not have to learn anything if they do not want to.

When the power goes out in the school, everyone panics in the dark, and only nerdy Mr. Harrison, who can fix and build anything, can save the day.

Tired of following the strict rules of their grumpy replacement principal, second-grader A.J. and his classmates try to find a way to bring back eccentric but lovable Principal Klutz, who was fired for bringing a wild turkey to the school's Thanksgiving Day assembly.