After spending her life with her mentally retarded mother and agoraphobic neighbor, twelve-year-old Heidi sets out from Reno, Nevada, to New York to find out who she is. Living with her mentally disabled mother who only knows just over twenty words, young Heidi has learned to live in her special world until a new word is suddenly used and repeated by her mother; causing Heidi to think it might be a key to a secret past about which she knows so little....

Different animals ask to join a fish in a tub until the tub is full.

Eleven-year-old Verbena Polter gets through a difficult summer of turbulent emotions and the revelation of a disturbing family secret with an odd new friend who believes she is the ghost of a girl who drowned many years before.

When she suspects that her father has a girlfriend, Melody and her best friend are determined to figure out who it is and why it is a secret.

Mrs. McNosh hangs up her wash with such gusto that her clothesline ends up holding the dog, a Christmas wreath, a kite, and other odd items.

After the death of Polly Portman, whose award-winning pies put the town of Ipswitch, Pennsylvania, on the map in the 1950s, her devoted niece Alice and Alice's friend Charlie investigate who is going to extremes to find Aunt Polly's secret pie crust recipe. Includes fourteen pie recipes.

Mac finally convinces his best friend Cheese to go to the beach, but then they miss the bus.

"Oggie Cooder loves cheese so much that he carries a slice of cheese with him wherever he goes. Its not just for a snack -- Oggie is an excellent charver. (Charving is when you chew a piece of cheese to carve it in the shape of something.) The kids at school think Oggie's charving is a little strange. But when a big TV show comes looking for people with unusual talents, Oggie is suddenly Mr. Popular. Can Oggie charve a path to fame and score an invite...

A professor tries to assemble Frankenstein's body parts so that the monster can enjoy his birthday cake, with unexpected results.

When Guy's mother announces that she is going to marry the father of his despised enemy Lana, Guy realizes that he must join forces with Lana to stop the event.