"My Irish grandfather, Thomas Lawrence Downey, was a great storyteller. I never tired of sitting on his knee - and later, when I was a bit too big, sitting at his feet with one of my baby sisters on his knee - listening to his wonderful tall tales. Among the stories I loved the best were the ones about the Irish - and the Downey family in particular. In those tales, I'm afraid, 'dramatic flair' and artistic liberties took over for fact. But as any good storyteller knows, to embellish is to make the tale interesting, especially to a young Tomie."

A wicked troll tries in vain to gobble up a family of goats when they go trip-trapping over his bridge.

Welcome to Centerburg! Where you can win a hundred dollars by eating all the doughnuts you want; where houses are built in a day; and where a boy named Homer Price can foil four slick bandits using nothing but his wits and pet skunk. The comic genius of Robert McCloskey and his wry look at small-town America has kept readers and listeners in stitches for generations!

A small boy helps one of the old folks next door remember when she loses her memory, in this gentle, beautiful story of sharing.

Told from four-year-old Laura's point of view, this story begins in 1871 in a little log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Laura lives in the little house with her pa, her ma, her sisters Mary and Carrie, and their trusty dog, Jack. Pioneer life is sometimes hard for the family, since they must grow or catch all their own food as they get ready for the cold winter. But it is also exciting as Laura and her family celebrate Christmas with homemade toys and treats, do the spring planting, bring in the harvest, and make their first trip into town.