With signature wit and whimsy, the inimitable Daniel Pinkwater introduces an eccentric, endearing babysitter every child will wish they could have. Nick and Maxine live in a tall building with one apartment on top of another. So when they look out their window and see a little house they never knew was there, of course they must visit (especially when their parents tell them not to!). Going through the boiler room, they're amazed to find to a secret

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Nick and Maxine accompany the eccentric lady to the eye doctor to help her four myopic mice who, after overindulging on cheesecake, go running into the streets, triggering a search that is aided by a helpful policemen and a rough-edged alley cat.

When their father decides to compete to be speed-knitting champion of the world, Nick and Maxine are happy to stay with their babysitter, Mrs. Noodlekugel, along with her talking cats and four mice who wear glasses. What they don't expect is a dripping-wet, whiskered man in the kitchen the next morning! Captain Noodlekugel has left his seafaring life to train animals for the circus, and he's even brought with him a hefty bear named Drooly for practice....

A young girl and Larry, the polar bear who lives in her father's hotel, enjoy each other's company and, on an outing to the zoo, they discover Larry's brother Roy.

After being hit on the head by his mother and told to fend for himself, Larry the polar bear floats from Baffin Bay to New Jersey where he gets a job as a lifeguard.

Arthur goes to pick up the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner but comes back with a 260-pound chicken.

Kelly Mangiaro, who has wanted a pet for as long as she can remember, gets more than she bargained for from her new dog, Mush.

Irving and Muktuk, two muffin-eating polar bears from the frozen north, have some trouble fitting into life at the zoo in Bayonne, New Jersely.

When shoelace heir Neddie Wentworthstein and his family take the train from Chicago to Los Angeles in the 1940s, he winds up in possession of a valuable Indian turtle artifact whose owner is supposed to be able to prevent the impending destruction of the world, but he is not sure exactly how.

Nick and Maxine have a new babysitter--the eccentric Mrs. Noodlekugel who lives in the funny little house behind their drab high-rise apartment building along with her feline butler, Mr. Fuzzface, and three myopic mice.