Tommy is eager to listen with his father to the first American spacewalk, but his father has to go to work, and when he comes home in the evening they have some trouble reconnecting.
Second-grader Emily is tired of pumpkins being at the center of every lesson in school, but she is not prepared when a jealous friend damages the jack-o-lantern portrait Emily made for Open House.
Mrs. Tuttle teaches a dog obedience class to twenty Dalmatians who are all named Daisy, but each one has some feature that makes her easily identifiable.
At bedtime on Christmas Eve, Katie is visited by the Sandman, Jack Frost, and the Tooth Fairy, all of whom hastily leave when they hear the arrival of the most important visitor of all.
A new boy named Matthew joins Mrs. Tuttle's class, which already has twenty-five students whose first names are Matthew and whose last names begin with every letter except Z.
