The delights of autumn are described in mixed-up verse and illustrations, and the reader is challenged to uncover the errors.

Princess Pinecone would like a real war horse for her birthday, instead of which she gets a plump, cute pony--but sometimes cuteness can be a kind of weapon, especially in a fight with dodgeballs and spitballs and hairballs and squareballs.

A young girl describes all the ways in which her mother and father conspire to ruin her life.

A literal-minded housekeeper causes chaos in the Rogers household when she attempts to make sense of some instructions.

Having expanded his summer lawn mowing job into an ever-growing business conglomerate, a twelve-year-old boy gets involved in high finance thanks to his hippie stockbroker, takes on sponsorship of a boxer, and becomes a media sensation.

When shoelace heir Neddie Wentworthstein and his family take the train from Chicago to Los Angeles in the 1940s, he winds up in possession of a valuable Indian turtle artifact whose owner is supposed to be able to prevent the impending destruction of the world, but he is not sure exactly how.

The narrator describes discovering how Ralph the dog can talk, appropriately saying words such as "roof, " "rough, " "bark, " and "wolf."