In an old toy store near his great-aunt's home, twelve-year-old Evan buys a dusty can of Monster Blood he thinks will be fun to play with.

Neela's aged aunt helps her to deal with her feelings of jealousy and self-destructiveness when her idyllic summer with boy friend Nick is spoiled when he gets a day job and acquires a female singer for his band.

A little girl makes a winter visit to her great-aunt, who brings out her lemon drop jar to brighten the gray day, stimulating family memories.

When a wealthy aunt offers to adopt one of the March girls, ten-year-old Jo decides the best thing to do is sacrifice herself.

When eleven-year-old Eddie Dickens's ill parents become "a bit crinkly round the edges, " he is taken by his great-uncle and great-aunt, Mad Uncle Jack and Mad Aunt Maude, and embarks on adventures that involve strolling actors, St. Horrid's Home for Grateful Orphans, and a carnival float shaped like a giant cow.

"When he realizes that his grandfather's stories of an enchanted circus are true, Micah Tuttle sets out to find the mysterious Circus Mirandus--and to use its magic to save his grandfather's life"--

Eleven-year-old aspiring basketball star and interior designer Lucy Wu is excited about finally having her own bedroom, until she learns that her great-aunt is coming to visit and Lucy will have to share a room with her for several months, shattering her plans for a perfect sixth-grade year.

When her father goes away, eleven-year-old California "Callie" Poppy winds up with her eccentric Great-Aunt Monica and their ancestor - the once-famous etiquette expert Eleanor Fontaine, now a hypersensitive ghost.

A foster child named Angel and twelve-year-old Stella, who are living with Stella's great-aunt Louise at the Linger Longer Cottage Colony on Cape Cod, secretly assume responsibility for the vacation rentals when Louise unexpectedly dies and the girls are afraid of being returned to the foster care system.

Bill the dog manages to avoid being bathed until he goes to stay with Great Aunt Bleach, who loves to clean.