"Say hello to Hitchcock. He's the Krelboyne class's pet parrot. Malcolm doesn't like him, so when it's his turn to take the mimicking mccaw home, he's not very happy. Say good-bye to Hitchcock. It was a total accident. A total freaky-beaky accident. But suddenly? The fine-feathered fiend got pulled into the vacuum cleaner! And now? Hitchcock is in that great birdhouse in the sky. How can Malcolm face his class? Worse, how can he face his mother??"--Cover p. 4.