When the four young teens from Okracoke Island, North Carolina, travel to England to return pirate loot stolen from Westminster Abbey in 1718, they learn of far deeper mysteries concerning the Stone of Scone and Blackbeard the pirate.
When someone steals the winner's trophy for the school book project, Clarice emulates her favorite book heroine, Ruby Redfort the detective, to solve the crime.
Paddington, the well-loved bear from "darkest Peru, " sets off on more merry mishaps including enrolling in school and receiving a visit from his Aunt Lucy.
In a small, rainy town in the north of England, Lizzie watches as her father, as well as other family members and friends, begin acting strangely as they all prepare for the Great Human Bird Competition.
Driven from their impoverished Irish village, Maura and her younger brother meet their landlord's runaway son in Liverpool while all three wait for a ship to America.