Despite horrible conditions at the boys' home where kidnappers left him, eleven-year-old Colley, an orphan, finds a reason and a way to live, along with comradeship.
Eleven-year-old Jenny endures a difficult fate when she arrives at her grandfather's house but is not recognized as one of the family because of a servant's intrigue.
Perfecta and her friend Puck climb a ladder to the stars, acquire covers which make them invisible, and pursue evil Mr. Snoot who is trying to change the characters in children's books.
When Rupert's friend Amelia is kidnapped by Mordo the warlock, Miss Switch the witch returns in the guise of a substitute teacher to help him rescue her.
Eleven-year-old Jenny endures a difficult fate when she arrives at her grandfather's house but is not recognized as one of the family because of a servant's intrigue.
After she accidentally knocks a hot iron on her sister's hand, a little Russian girl waits in terror for the two bad things to follow the first as her grandmother predicted.