Betsy, Billy, and their friends enjoy and learn from the many activities in the second grade.

"Betsy experiences an interesting first year in school and looks forward to summer vacation at her grandfather's farm." --

Deciding that his sleigh is too old to use for delivering presents, Santa Claus gets a helicopter but finds after several mishaps that his sleigh and reindeer are still the most reliable transportation.

The summer Eddie and his friend start a dog portrait business, he holds the subject and she paints the portrait, often with disastrous results.

"Whenever Penny and his adopted brother Peter decide to help their parents, they usually end up in trouble." --

Spending the summer in the country with her grandparents, five-year-old Star has a chance to make friends with raccoons, swans,and other animals both domestic and wild.

A visit to the circus inspires Boodles to experiment with clownmakeup and to try to teach his dog Poochie to do tricks.

Eddie doesn't want to play anything but ball, but when the school starts an orchestra, he decides to learn something fast so that he can join too.