When Addie gets a haircut she hates, she is too embarrassed to come to her friend Max's birthday party.

Despite his sister Ruby's admonitions, Max waits up on Christmas Eve to see Santa Claus coming down the chimney.

Bobby Pendragon is a seemingly normal fourteen-year-old boy. He has a family, a home, and even Marley, his beloved dog. But there is something very special about Bobby. He is going to save the world. ...Before he can object, he is swept off to an alternate dimension known as Denduron, a territory inhabited by strange beings, ruled by a magical tyrant, and plagued by dangerous revolution.

Convinced that Mud is responsible for the disappearance of the school hamster that was his responsibility for the weekend, Junior Blossom is determined that the dog should be tried for his "crime."