Winnie the witch has trouble navigating crowded skies, so she tries changing her broomstick into other means of transportation, until she discovers what she really needs.
From the time he puts his pants on his arms until he tries to buy a train ticket at the flower shop, "that absentminded fellow from Portobello Road" bumbles from one muddle to the next.
In 1893, thirteen-year-old Joshua and his eleven-year-old sister, Amy, travel from South Dakota to New York City with the help of the mysterious Mortimer Wintergreen and his unpredictable magic hat.
After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Pudmuddle move into their backwards house where they live happily until they discover certain deficiencies--there is no basement and the roof has blown off.
When twelve-year-old Albert inherits a thousand dollars from an uncle, he decides that what he needs most is a zephyrcar--a flying machine that skims over the ground--to help him deliver papers on his morning route.