Second-grader Jake Drake makes it his mission to make the solemn new student teacher smile, but he soon finds that not everyone is impressed by his clown act.
Nine-year-old cousins Rosie, Lily, and Tess spend their winter vacation learning to sew with their neighbor Mrs. White and preparing for a special winter solstice dinner with Aunt Lucy and her boyfriend Michael.
While staying with their aunt for a year, three nine-year-old cousins keep busy baking and selling cookies, putting on a poetry and singing performance, and trying to encourage a romance between their aunt and one of their former customers.
Pandora the cat becomes a lighthouse keeper and saves the life of Seabold the dog, and together the two of them create a family with three young mice rescued from the sea.
Rosie, Lily, and Tess, three cousins who are living together with their aunt, decide to make a miniature flower shop just like Aunt Lucy's real shop, and give it to her as a gift.
A young boy with a knack for creating unusual inventions when he should be helping his mother on the farm finds a use for them when he is made sheriff of a town in Kansas and must get rid of a gang of no-good bullies.
