Sixth-grader Henry Haddock's personal war with School Board Chairman "Scooter" McDuff starts innocently. Over breakfast one day, Henry complains that his favorite teacher has been laid off in a sudden, sneaky burst of budget cuts.

Henry goes to ask the School Board to ask why. Scooter tells Henry to shut up. A week later, Scooter does it again. After that, it's a war of wills!

Henry's protest eventually triggers a brawl in the high-school library, a recall petition, a battered TV reporter and the unlikely political career of high-school basketball star "Moose" Fulton, brother of Fantasia, Henry's ferocious sidekick.

The town takes sides. Henry becomes the unlikely leader of the underdog faction—along with Moose and Fantasia, Charlie Mulcahy, Mr. McCloskey and the flamboyant Dexter D. Lee. Henry finds himself pitted versus the School Board, the "Thundering Three Hundred," the local radio station, the richest man in town, his sister Penelope and a German shepherd named Wagner.