William wants a doll more than anything else. When his father gives him a basketball and a train, the new toys do not make him want a doll any less.

It's a golden, windy autumn day, and a mother a daughter set out walking among the swirling leaves. As they wend their way, they share little adventures--spying a kitten, seeing the trees zigzag with streaks of color, catching some floating milkweed, watching the setting sun color the clouds. Throughout their walk, the girl keeps urging her mother to "say it" with more and more persistence. What could "it" be? From a sterling picture-book team comes...

A family's noisy little poodle barks at everything, disturbing the father, until the day everyone else goes out and the father and poodle are left alone together.

A little girl, answering her mother's question about why she likes to be little, describes some of the special pleasures of being a child.

A little girl, answering her mother's question about why she like to be little,

Two separate stories--one from a girl's point of view, the other from that of a young boy--tell what her daughter or his son will be allowed to do.

Throughout the year, Susan hears a little bird inside her singing of the changing seasons, but no one else can hear it.