Nick is a student at Lincoln Elementary who may or may not be a troublemaker, but he certainly “[has] plenty of ideas, and he [knows] what to do with them” (1). For example, he once turned his third-grade classroom into a beach. The idea seems harmless to Nick’s teacher, but before long, the theme crosses lines: Nick turns up the thermostat to 90 degrees, sprinkles the floor with sand, and plays “Nerf volleyball over a net made from six T-shirts tied together” (2). The fun ends when the principal discovers the classroom in complete disarray.

In fourth grade, Nick learns that red-wing blackbirds evade their predators by making a chirping sound that is difficult to locate. Nick experiments during silent reading by making a high-pitched “peeping” sound, which his teacher, Mrs. Avery, fails to correctly locate. Instead, she blames his classmate, Janet Fisk. He later apologizes to Janet and explains what he learned about blackbirds, and she joins Nick’s game throughout the rest of the year.

Nick senses that fifth grade will be different from previous years, particularly because of his language arts teacher, Mrs. Granger: “She was small, as teachers go. There were even some fifth graders who were taller.