Aspiring special effects wizard Desmond Pucket carries his pranks too far, putting his field trip to Mountain Full of Monsters at Crab Shell Pier in jeopardy.

When a boy and his family move to a new house, he devises an ingenious way to meet people in the neighborhood.

Two boys are in bed talking about girls, how boring and silly and fearful they are, until it suddenly occurs to them that there might be ghosts about. Suddenly they find someone with more courage than they have.

Frankie and Sal have run out of things to do: "We've played every sport ever invented" and "baked enough cookies to feed a small country--" Then Sal hits upon a solution: "Let's do nothing!" How hard could that be?

A young city boy, riding the subway, finds an abandoned book about redwoods. He finds himself in the very forest described in the book. After finishing the book, he leaves it for someone else to read.

When Pedro breaks his arm racing his bike he has to cope with the frustration of wearing a cast for a whole month--but with the help of his friends he discovers that there are still fun things to do.

"Creepy! Crawly! Criminy! Stink is bonkers about most scientific things. But dangle a spider in front of him and he goes berserk! Stink is so freaked out by spiders that he can't read about them. He can't look at them. He can't think about them. And he for sure can't touch them! Stink has arachnophobia (a fear of spiders), and he has it bad. But when a hairy backyard emergency arises, Stink is forced to face his fear--and eight beady eyes--head-on....

Nothing has gone right for twelve-year-old year old Lawrence since his Pop went away, but after getting expelled from school for fighting he discovers the world of chess and things begin to change.