Before becoming the first female private investigator in Botswana, eight-year-old Precious Ramotswe tracks down a thief who has been stealing her classmates' snacks.

It is the summer of 1869, and trains, crews, and families are traveling together, riding America's brand new transcontinental railroad. The story comes alive with the details of the trip and the sounds, speed, and strength of the mighty locomotives; the work that keeps them moving; and the thrill of travel from plains to mountain to ocean.

Matilda applies her untapped mental powers to rid the school of the evil, child-hating headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, and restore her nice teacher, Miss Honey, to financial security.

A very small mouse of unknown origins runs away from school in the Royal Mews of Buckingham Palace shortly before the celebration of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee, celebrating her sixty years on the British throne.

When danger calls, the princess sets forth to save her kingdom. Collects The Princess in Black, The Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party, and The Princess in Black and the Hungary Bunny Horde into a single volume. 

A train is on its maiden voyage across the country, and first-class passenger Will Everett is about to embark on an adventure. Will ends up with a key to a train car containing priceless treasures; he becomes the target of sinister figures from his past. So Will joins a traveling circus, enlisting the aid of Mr. Dorian, the ringmaster and Maren, a girl his age who is an escape artist. With villains fast on their heels, can Will and Maren reach Will's father and save the train.

When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part, because she's a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan.

In 1848, ten-year-old Toozak, a Yupik Eskimo, sees a whale being born and is told by a shaman that he and his descendants must protect that whale, which Toozak names Siku, as long as it lives.

California girl born and raised, Mai can't wait to spend her vacation at the beach. Instead, though, she has to travel to Vietnam with her grandmother, who is going back to find out what really happened to her husband during the Vietnam War. Mai's parents think this trip will be a great opportunity for their out-of-touch daughter to learn more about her culture. But to Mai, those are their roots, not her own.

After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea, twelve-year-old Percy is sent to a summer camp for demigods like himself, and joins his new friends on a quest to prevent a war between the gods.