After going to two friends' birthday parties, Max wants a party, too, so Grandma suggests a half birthday party, with all the half-trimmings.

Although Sophie wants to be helpful and good, sometimes she ignores her mother, father, and grandmother and must have a time-out.

Stella is unnerved by a bullying group of weasels who say mean things about her humble home until her mother offers words of comfort and her father drives the trailer to a new location where kind friends are found.

When the Depression hits in Cairo, Illinois, and Oscar Ogilvie's father must sell their home and vast model train set-up to look for work in California, eleven-year-old Oscar is left with his dour aunt, where he befriends a mysterious drifter, witnesses a stunning bank robbery, and is suddenly catapulted onto a train that takes him to a different time and place.

On Christmas morning, Sophie discovers that good things often come in small packages.