Seven-year-old Christine spends Christmas Eve helping her great-grandmother decorate her tree and sharing the story of a very special ornament that came from Rumania many years before.

Publisher Annotation: Ali lives with his great-grandmother in a tiny clay house at the edge of the desert. Just her and him. Just him and her. They don't need anything more to be happy. But lately, Ali has begun to notice how his great-grandmother has aged. And one day, he asks if her life's dreams have come true. All except one, she tells him. She had a dream to see the sea, but now she is too old to go. So, the next morning, Ali sets off with a...

Four-year-old Tommy enjoys his relationship with his grandmother and his great-grandmother, but eventually learns to face their inevitable death.

The inhabitants of Green Knowe become involved with black magic when a modern-day witch attempts to find books of witchcraft supposedly hidden in the old house by a mad seventeenth-century alchemist.

A strange friendship develops between a young Chinese refugee who is spending the summer at Green Knowe and a gorilla who has escaped from the London Zoo.

In the city of Olinda, Brazil, Clara is looking forward to the Carnaval street parade, with the colorful, fantastic costumes that her great-grandmother makes for the family--but her Bisa is too old to follow the parade, so Clara decides to bring the parade to her.