A bean whose friends from the previous year in school have suddenly become cool, while he most certainly has not, is resigned to being ordinary until he experiences kindness.

A child provides insights, based on personal experience, into everything that can go wrong if one brings an alligator to school for show-and-tell.

Rick is a rock. For as long as he can remember, he's lived on the Nature Finds shelf in Room 214 alongside an acorn, some moss, and a piece of bark. One day, the teacher shows the class what rocks do outdoors, and Rick is captivated. Now Rick's determined to get outside. But when Rick does make his way into the great outdoors, he finds it's not quite what he imagined--and that sometimes the greatest adventure of all is being a friend.