Although Aunt Arlene tries to interest her in clothing and growing up, ten-year-old Mildred is entirely focused on growing a pumpkin big enough to win the annual Circleville, Ohio, contest, as her mother dreamed of doing before she died.

Hedgehog and Rabbit enjoy eating cabbages and looking for snails in their peaceful garden. But when a scary, swirling wind comes up, the two must find a way to face their fears.

Twelve-year-old Olive, an only child who lives with her high-powered lawyer-mother in a ramshackle house at the beach in Australia, does not fit in at the Joanne d'Arc School for Girls, so when her best friend drops her for a more popular girl and Olive suddenly meets her own, more confident twin sister, the two of them go in search of their long-lost father.