A retelling of a classic tale in which a well-intentioned young possum continually takes his mother's instructions much too literally.

Baxter the Basset Hound comes to the aid of some kittens when their mother disappears one afternoon.

Anansi the Spider uses a strange moss-covered rock in the forest to trick all the other animals, until little Bush Deer decides he needs to learn a lesson.

When Anansi the spider invites Turtle to a party just to play a trick on him, Turtle gets revenge at a party of his own.

Anansi the Spider steals Hyena's magic stick so he won't have to do his chores, but when the stick's magic won't stop, he gets more than he bargained for.

Starting with the nursery rhyme, the tale goes on to describe a series of unruly animals that run amok.

In this variation on the folktale, Sody Salyraytus, each of Epossumondas's birthday guests disappears until it is finally up to him to rescue them all and bring home the "sody" for his birthday biscuits.

Poor Wilbur, the Easter Bunny, gets so sick that he almost misses his Easter deliveries.

Annie Dillard remembers. She remembers the exhilaration of whipping a snowball at a car and having it hit straight on. She remembers playing with the skin on her mother's knuckles, which "didn't snap back; it lay dead across her knuckle in a yellowish ridge." She remembers the compulsion to spend a whole afternoon (or many whole afternoons) endlessly pitching a ball at a target. In this intoxicating account of her childhood, Dillard climbs back inside...