After Mercy the pig snuggles to sleep with the Watsons, all three awaken with the bed teetering on the edge of a big hole in the floor.

Relates the surprising gifts bestowed on twelve-year-old Bob Barnhart and his family, who have recently moved to a small Illinois town in 1958, by their larger-than-life neighbor, Mrs. Dowdel.

Told that they will have to move out of their Harlem brownstone just after Christmas, the five Vanderbeeker children, ages four to twelve, decide to change their reclusive landlord's mind.

When Amedeo moves to the Navy town of St. Malo, Florida, he finds an unlikely friend in William Wilcox when, while working together on a house sale for Amedeo's eccentric neighbor, they become caught up in a story that dates back to Nazi Germany, which teaches them the true meaning of heroism.

Bub the pug has never seen snow before, and when Duchess the cat tells him it is frozen rain he is appalled and does not want to go out even to play with his human, Bella--but the week is about to get worse because a new family has moved in next door, and they apparently have a pet monster (at least if Nutz the squirrel can be believed) and Bella's mother has arranged a play date for Sunday.