Catalina, daughter of the mechanic at the Cerro Tololo observatory in Chile, dreams of becoming an astronomer. Unfortunately everyone just considers her a nuisance, that is until she saves an astronomer after a tragic fall and prevents serious damage to the telescope. She is rewarded by the astronomer’s offer to help her with scholarship forms to the best schools in Chile for young scientists.

After Daniel’s and Joseph’s pa died at the Alamo, the boys joined Sam Houston’s brigade to fight for Texas independence. After Santa Anna’s surrender, Sam Houston passed around an ear of corn from their meager supplies and encouraged each soldier to take a kernel home so that they could cultivate the arts of peace as nobly as they had mastered the arts of war.

Gyffes Llaw is the finest shoemaker in Wales and the Princess of Wales goes barefoot for lack of good shoes. Well, as you might guess, Gyffes Llaw wins her heart while making her shoes.

When a young couple moves into a remote valley, they assure the local trolls that they mean no harm. As the years pass the trolls come to love the couple and they the trolls. Unfortunately the family’s prosperity brings development to the valley and eventually the trolls have to move north, leaving behind a precious gift for their friends.

During recess from school a full scale snowball war forms, complete with ammunition sleds, forts and commanders.

Mama, Papa and Granny all have peculiar ways of knowing that a big rain is coming – none of them very scientific. But that doesn’t stop Papa from building a raft the size of an ark for the great flood of 1908.

A young booklover thinks the librarian is a witch, only to find out how true that is when he is locked in the library after closing on a stormy night.

Cat thinks her new neighbor, Mrs. Becker, is really weird when she sees her hauling rocks and dirt into her house a month before Christmas. But when Cat’s mom asks her to take Mrs. Becker some fresh cookies, Cat discovers a wonderful and kind woman that has a perfectly good reason for bringing bushels of dirt into her home.

When young William’s rabbits destroy Mr. Morton’s lettuce, and his chickens pecks holes in Mr. Grady’s tomatoes, Mr. Morton and Mr. Grady decide that William should try his hand at raising a pig.

When a failing village refuses to buy books from an old woman that contain all of the knowledge and all of the wisdom of the world, she burns half the books. When she returns the next year, she offers them the remaining books that contain one-half of all the knowledge and wisdom of the world and so on until they finally pay sixteen bags of gold for only one-twelfth of all of the knowledge and wisdom of the world, but that is enough to change their fortunes.