Relates five adventures of Owl. Owl lives by himself, but he's not always alone. One evening he invites Winter in to sit by the fire; another time he finds strange bumps in his bed; and on a walk one night, a friend follows him all the way home.

A miniature family--Pod and Homily Clock, and their daughter Arrietty--live under the kitchen floor in an old country house. In their tiny home, matchboxes serve as dressers and postage stamps hang on the wall like paintings. Whatever the Clock family needs, they simply "borrow" from the humans who live above them. Only Pod ventures into the house above, because of the danger of being seen by the humans. But Arietty is lonely, and changes all of their...

Flora the pig ditches the sedentary life on the farm for an adventure in Antarctica, where she escapes the knife and lives her dream of pulling a sled with a team of dogs.

Mary Poppins comes back on the end of a kite string, stays with the Banks family for a while, and then disappears on a merry-go-round horse.

Sand flew up into Danny's eyes. And then from behind him, a huge explosion seemed to shatter the world. The force lifted Danny off his feet and threw him onto the ground. And then Danny couldn't hear anything at all.

"Ruby's story picks up a few months after the events of The One and Only Bob. Now living in a wildlife sanctuary, Ruby's caretaker from the elephant orphanage in Africa where she grew up is visiting. Seeing him again brings back a flood of memories both happy and sad of her life before the circus, and she recounts the time she spent in the African savannah to Ivan and Bob. In the timeless way that only Katherine Applegate could craft, this highly...

After barely surviving a terrifying hurricane, Chase and his friends Nicole and Rashawn have made it to the safety of Nicole's family farm, which is also the winter home of the Rossi Brothers Circus, where flood waters are rising and dangerous circus animals are on the loose.

With a boom and a burst of fireworks, Mary Poppins returns, falling from the sky like a shooting star. She arrives not a moment too late: The Banks home is a complete shambles--five wild children without a nanny are five children too many!

Ware can’t wait to spend summer “off in his own world”—dreaming of knights in the Middle Ages and generally being left alone. But then his parents sign him up for dreaded Rec camp, where he must endure Meaningful Social Interaction and whatever activities so-called “normal” kids do. On his first day Ware meets Jolene, a tough, secretive girl planting a garden in the rubble of an abandoned church next to the camp. Soon he starts skipping...

"Eleven-year-old Perry was born and raised by his mom at the Blue River Co-ed Correctional Facility in tiny Surprise, Nebraska. His mom is a resident on Cell Block C, and so far Warden Daugherty has made it possible for them to be together. That is, until a new district attorney discovers the truth--and Perry is removed from the facility and forced into a foster home. When Perry moves to the "outside" world, he feels trapped. Desperate to be reunited...