Members of an extended African American family celebrate with joy and pride the birth of a first-born son according to African traditions. Text adorned with Adinkra symbols of the Asante people of Ghana.
Baby Owen's grandmother learns that he is wiggly, jiggly, and all-around giggly for bluegrass music, so with her banjo, she travels by curious means to visit and play for him.
During the summer that she turns nine, Mary Margaret tries very hard to persuade her parents to let her have a pet, makes a new neighbor friend and helps her brother keep an old one, and looks forward to the new baby's arrival because then her mother will be less "crabby.".
Nigel the cat and Julia the dog think they will have no use for the new baby in their house, but after awhile they realize that they have come to love her.