Rumor has it that the new gym teacher is a real monster, someone who works the students very hard and makes them participate in dangerous activities like playing dodge ball with his truck.
After relating all of the horrible things the school custodian, Fester Smudge, is known to have done, a student whose locker won't open needs Mr. Smudge's help.
On the first day of a new school year Mrs. Green's imagination runs wild as she thinks of all the horrible things she's heard about her new class, including that they've sent their previous three teachers into early retirement.
A boy contemplates all the horrible stories he has heard about the art teacher, Krayolla Swamp, the strange things she has in her classroom, and how she expects her students to express themselves.
Mrs. Green announces that a new student is joining the class, and he is coming from far away. Immediately, everyone makes their guesses about where he is from. Hubie has his own suspicion--the new kid is from Mars!
"Mrs. Green is out sick today. A substitute teacher is coming. What if he is nine feet tall, crashes through walls, and hurls students into outer space! Uh-oh!"--Page 4 of cover.
A boy learns that a dentist will be visiting his school. He hears scary rumors about the dentist, but discovers there is no reason to be afraid of dentists.
