When Great Aunt Tilda comes to visit, it takes her a little while to learn to understand Josh, who has autism, just as it takes him some time to get used to her.
Leaving his parents, his Mad Uncle Jack, and his Even Madder Aunt Maud at home at Awful End, Eddie Dickens, along with the color-blind Lady Constance, boards the ship the Pompous Pig on a mission to America.
Rachel leads a lonely life with the old people she calls the Fossils until she starts to receive the Warnings, strange psychic messages that let her know of a grave threat.
Vannie tries to make the best of things when she and her dog Muffy are left with her cranky great-aunt on an old farm in Ohio while Vannie's parents go to California to look for work.
Great-aunt Alice Rumphius resolved when young that she would someday travel to faraway places, live by the sea, and accomplish something to make the world more beautiful.
Simon's nice manners are challenged by a visit to his unconventional great-aunt, and Simon's unruly classmates look at learning differently after his great-aunt serves as their substitute teacher.
Twelve-year-old Parker reluctantly goes to spend the summer with his eccentric great-aunt and great-uncle on their dilapidated farm, where he discovers that there is more to life than the latest game system and the coolest cell phone.
While helping take care of his great-aunt's rose bush, young Douglas learns about family members who have done the same, starting with his great-great-grandfather, and comes to see how each is still part of that bush.
