When his family moves from California to New Sodom, Massachusetts and Cody enters Vlad Dracul Magnet School, many things seem strange, from the dark-haired, pale-skinned, supernaturally strong students to Charon, the wolf who guides him around campus on the first day.

"When Willa Cathcart Wilmerding, the bravest girl in the world, is told she must stop her nightly tradition of howling at the moon, she decides to run away. High in the mountains, she meets Buttercup the Bigfoot, a friend unlike any other! Willa and Buttercup do everything together. They leap up and down the mountains, soar over mighty crevasses, and make each other crowns of flowers--but their favorite thing to do is climb a high peak and HOWL at...

Wilson is one of the most bullied fourth-graders at the chaotic Very Elementary School until his long-lost uncle, Desperate Evil Wicked Bob--a pirate--and his talking penguin arrive and begin making everything ship-shape, one classroom at a time.