Bradley doesn't like school. It's boring. And his new teacher, Mrs. Gross, is crabby. And something is terribly wrong... It all starts when Mrs. Gross introduces a new type of math in which 6 x 9=54, but upside-down, 9 x 6=45. Then she tells the students they don't have to use any silent letters in their spelling lessons. "Friend" is "frend" and "have" becomes "hav. " Bradley is dumbfounded and vows to get to the bottom of it. He finds a book called The Truth About teachers that tells about Apple Island, where all teachers come from. The good teachers built an ark and came to America to set up schools. The crabby ones followed them with a sinister plan. When Mrs. Gross kidnaps his classmates and whisks them off to Apple Island, it's up to Bradley to navigate the island's pitfalls to save his friends and schoolchildren everywhere.