''Now, Miss Pickering.'' Miss Strickland turned to her pupil. ''If you would be so kind as to close the door behind you, we will endeavour to discuss why your aunt, her publisher and her monkey have called upon us this afternoon.'' 1872 Forever in trouble for sketching in her notebook, Penny Pickering dreams of her famous authoress aunt turning up at her boarding school and whisking her away. So when Aunt Harriet appears at Miss Strickland's School for Girls of an Enquiring Mind and asks Penny if she would like to join her on an adventure, Penny knows exactly what to say - yes, please! Penny soon finds herself headed for Hampshire and a strange place called Mr Toddington's Museum of the Curious and Absurd where bewitched kittens are said to have a tea party at midnight.