"When Max's parents leave the country without him, he must rely on his wits to get by, and before long he is running his own--rather unusual--business"--Provided by publisher.

A quirky and utterly logical seventh-grade girl named Emma-Jean Lazarus discovers some interesting results when she gets involved in the messy everyday problems of her peers.

The boys come up with a plan to keep their school from closing.

It all begins when Drew and Jonathan are doing what they do best--thinking up big plans for even bigger projects. Will they build a treehouse? A castle? A catapult? They have a whole lot of big ideas, but no one thinks they can do any of them! The twins brainstorm, scribble, and tinker until they have the perfect big plan. They'll save every last penny, sketch out some designs, and make a whole lot of noise--builders aren't known for being quiet--because...

Rat, Squirrel, Rabbit, and Mouse want to cross the bayou, but next to the log they are considering as a bridge is a sneaky tail, which may be attached to someone dangerous--each of the four approach the problem with a different strategy, with varying results.

Peanut the chipmunk really wants to fly his homemade kite, but it keeps ending up on the ground--but Peanut refuses to give up, and with the help of his animal friends the kite will fly.

Principal Wagner confidently deals with a faculty washroom crisis, a psychic parrot, and a terrorizing gerbil, but when sixty-five erasers go missing, he enlists the help of the school's best problem solver and lost item locator, twelve-year-old Lyle Williams, also known as Mudshark.

Max and her CMI friends attempt to use their smarts to find solutions to a water crisis, while a greedy corporation with an eye on capturing Max seems to know their every move.