Surrounded by other kids with extremely commercial ideas about Christmas, Charlie Brown struggles to understand the true spirit of the holiday.

In the summer of 1859, fifteen-year-old Annie travels to the Maryland farm where her father, John Brown, is secretly assembling his provisional army prior to their raid on the United States arsenal at nearby Harpers Ferry.

"Lucy is busy rigging the Easter egg hunt, Peppermint Patty and Marcie can't seem to make Easter eggs no matter how many times they try, and Linus is waiting for the Easter Beagle to bring candy and eggs for everyone..."

Having been discovered, a family of poisonous but friendly brown recluse spiders must flee their cozy home in a symphony hall and go searching for a new place to live.

"What do moral people do when democracy countenances evil? The question, implicit in the idea that people can govern themselves, came to a head in America at the middle of the nineteenth century, in the struggle over slavery. John Brown's answer was violence--violence of a sort some in later generations would call terrorism. Brown was a deeply religious man who heard the God of the Old Testament speaking to him, telling him to do whatever was necessary...