"Twelve-year-old Gratuity "Tip" Tucci is assigned to write five pages on "The true meaning of Smekday" for the National Time Capsule contest, and she's not sure where to beging: when her mom started telling everyone about the messages aliens were sending through a mole on the back of her neck? Maybe on Christmas Eve, when huge, bizarre spaceships descended to Earth and the aliens - called the Boov - abducted her mother? Or when the Boov declared Earth...

In this cumulative tale, a tree becomes a hiding place for various animals, a runaway circus clown, and even an elephant.

On the first day of school, a young panda learns about the special things his animal classmates can do.

When Chu the panda sneezes, bad things happen.

Telling his faithful dog to make sure nobody touches his clothes but him, a cowboy jumps into a New Mexico river for a bath, not realizing just how much the scrubbing will change his scent.

I’m Lucy Rose, and here’s the thing about this summer: I am big on fun and big on plans. I am desperate to make a lanyard keychain, and Jonique is feeling the same about potholders. Plus I have to get rid of 78 or more squirrels that are climbing all over Madam and Pop’s apricot tree and taking bites out of the puny fruits and flinging them to the ground which is maddening to Madam who wants to make them into jam. The apricots,...