Mrs. Pidgeon has been reading Aesop's fables to her second grade class. What's a fable? Well, it's a story that has animals as characters, and it teaches you something important, and... Once again it is Gooney Bird Greene who knows how to turn lessons into fun. She has an idea. A fabulous idea! What if each child creates his or her own fable, and tells it to the class? One by one Mrs. Pidgeon's students create costumes and stories and morals and excitement....

Thirty years after their disappearance, the previously frozen Willoughbys have thawed out and returned from the Alps, to the consternation of their children and grandchildren.

"It's March!" Mrs. Pidgeon said as she wrote the day's date on the chalkboard. "In like a lion, out like a lamb!" The morning bell has rung at Watertower Elementary School, and it's time for Mrs. Pidgeon's class to turn to page 52 in their science books to learn about one of the most spectacular scientific subjects of all-the human body! As usual, Gooney Bird has a special plan to make learning more fun. But what on earth is in that scary-looking...

In this tongue-in-cheek take on classic themes in children's literature, the four Willoughby children set about to become "deserving orphans" after their neglectful parents embark on a treacherous around-the-world adventure, leaving them in the care of an odious nanny.