During the summer of 1987, Allie Jo, whose family runs an antebellum Florida hotel, meets Chase, who is staying there with his father, and they become friends when they discover a mysterious teenager hiding on the grounds of the hotel.
Describes how some of Paris's famous artists and writers, such as Pablo Picasso, Max Jacob, and Guillaume Apollinaire, spend their day before preparing to attend a party at Gertrude Stein's apartment.
Xena and Xander Holmes, an American brother and sister spending a year in England, use clues in their ancestor Sherlock Holmes' casebook as they try to solve the mystery of a monster threatening a peaceful country village where a documentary film is being made.
In the mid-1950s, Lewis Barnavelt is convinced that a series of accidents that has been happening to him and his Uncle Jonathan are being directly caused by a curse from a mysterious, hooded figure that might be part of his uncle's past.
While spending a month on an island off the coast of Washington helping in her Uncle Sanjay's veterinary clinic, eleven-year-old Poppy Ray soon questions her decision to follow in her uncle's footsteps.
Hannah hears Granny Priss recount her involvement in the Salem witch trials of 1692 and the terrible consequences that occured when Granny Priss, as a young girl, joined Ann Putnam in accusing many innocent women of being witches.
Abigail Iris thinks she would rather be an only child but after going on vacation with her best friend, who is an "Only," she realizes there are benefits of being one of many.
A great brown bear that dances in the forest is imprisoned by a selfish princess, and the story of his escape explains the constellation of the Great Bear.