Wayside: The Movie is based on Louis Sachar's best-selling "Wayside School" set of books and the Nickelodeon series of the same name. Both detail the daily life at a quirky school filled with oddball students and staff. The school was supposed to be a one-story building with thirty classrooms. However, the contractor goofed up and ended up building a thirty-story school with one room on each floor - and that's only the beginning. Cows roam the halls, class elections are decided by games of dodge ball and the principal, Mr. Kidswatter, hates kids and has a strange obsession with talking on the intercom. Then there's Miss Mush, the school cook who cooks in the sink, washes dishes on the stove and keeps a dead rat as a pet.

At the center of the story is Todd, a normal student who has to transfer to Wayside School after an incident at his old school. On his first day, he notices all of the students walking into the school with umbrellas even though there isn't a cloud in the sky. He soon finds out that it is "Science Day" and the teacher on the 30th floor is throwing things out of the window (she's studying gravity). Once in the school, Todd discovers that all of his classmates are as sideways as the school. Although Todd thinks everything is weird, the rest of his classmates think everything is perfectly normal.

Todd's first day ends quickly when his teacher, Miss Jewel, sends him home on the Kindergarten bus. His second day is just as strange as the first when he gets caught up in the class elections and finds that one of the girls in the class has a crush on him. (Of course, her way of telling him involves punching him in the arm). Even worse, he discovers that the wall in Miss Jewel's classroom moves, threatening to crush the entire class! Now if only he can get Miss Jewel to listen to him instead of threatening to send him home on the Kindergarten bus...

Wayside: The Movie is a great choice for parents with kids ages 4 - 10. The movie has a fast-paced, hyper feel that should match most kids. It always throws something different and new that it should keep even kids with short attention spans engaged. Better yet, the show is funny enough that even parents might find themselves laughing right along with their kids.