One summer's day, ten-year-old India Opal Buloni goes down to the local supermarket for some groceries - and comes home with a dog. But Winn-Dixie is no ordinary dog. It's because of Winn-Dixie that Opal begins to make friends. And it's because of Winn-Dixie that she finally dares to ask her father about her mother, who left when Opal was three. In fact, as Opal admits, just about everything that happens that summer is because of Winn-Dixie.

Dear Reader, if you have not read anything about the Baudelaire orphans, then before you read even one more sentence, you should know this: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are kindhearted and quick-witted; but their lives, I am sorry to say, are filled with bad luck and misery. All of the stories about these three children are unhappy and wretched, and this one may be the worst of them all. If you haven't got the stomach for a story that includes a hurricane,...

Mike proves that, although dated, his steam shovel is still useful. When Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel, Mary Anne, lose their jobs to the gasoline, electric, and diesel motor shovels, they find a new opportunity in a very surprising place.

"Mira lives in a gray and hopeless urban community until a muralist arrives and, along with his paints and brushes, brings color, joy, and togetherness to Mira and her neighbors"--

As snowflakes slowly come down, one by one, people in the city ignore them, and only a boy and his dog think that the snowfall will amount to anything.

On his first visit to the city, an excited puppy sees tall buildings, hears loud buses, and tries to say hello to everyone he meets.

Told that they will have to move out of their Harlem brownstone just after Christmas, the five Vanderbeeker children, ages four to twelve, decide to change their reclusive landlord's mind.

Liam discovers a hidden garden and with careful tending spreads color throughout the gray city.

"June Hudson is the town's doctor, a caring, capable woman who now has a bit of explaining to do. People are beginning to notice the bloom in her cheeks-- and the swell of her belly. Happily, DEA agent Jim Post is back in June's arms for good, newly retired from undercover work and ready for new beginnings here in Grace Valley."--Page 4 of cover.

Polly's friendship with the wealthy Shaws of Boston helps them to build a new life and teaches her the truth about the relationship between happiness and riches.