Big Brown Bear gets his four fellow bears into their cozy, warm beds without much trouble, but in the middle of the night a strange sound frightens them awake.

Four chairs. Four adorable bears. All is well until Big Brown Bear shows up -- what a stare -- and wants a seat. Can these clever bears put their heads together (among other things) and make space for one more?

It's 1926, and the one thing eleven-year-old Lexie Lewis wants more than anything is to leave Portland, where she is living with her strict grandparents, and rejoin her mother, a carefree singer in San Francisco. But Mama's new husband doesn't think a little girl should live with parents who work all night and sleep all day. Lexie's class has been raising money to ship a doll to the children of Japan in a friendship exchange, and when Lexie learns...

"When eleven-year-old Chiyo Tamura is sent from her home in a small Japanese mountain village to a girls' school in the city of Tsuchiura, she never imagines that she will soon be in Tokyo helping to welcome more than twelve thousand Friendship Dolls from America--including Emily Grace, a gift to her own school. Nor could she dream that she'd have an important role in the crafting of Miss Tokyo, one of fifty-eight Japanese dolls to be sent to America...

When Big Brown Bear and the four little bears notice that the trees are shimmering in the wind with spring blooms, they know just how to spend the day: a picnic. The blustery weather is perfect for flying kites, and the bears can't wait to frolic under the cherry blossoms with the busy bees and eat a lunch of bread with honey. It's time to send the kites up into the air but the winds are so strong, they carry the little bears up off the ground and...

It's Halloween and Big Brown Bear and the four little bears are very excited. But will there be enough costumes for everyone?

"The little bears pick up their instruments and play a noisy song. They don't care if the notes are wrong. But uh-oh, Big Brown Bear is fast asleep. Will their lively music wake him up?"--Dust jacket flap.