Third Grade is Life is the story of a school day in the life of TJ O'Bannon, the seven year old terror of Glen Warden Elementary School and how he is seen by the school's administrators, faculty, staff, and classmates. Set in the early 1960s in a small middleclass upstate New York town, TJ is well-known to prospective teachers and detested by those who have taught him for his tomfoolery, antics, and unmanageable behavior.