If Howard Morton and Freddie the Frog Killer were trying to hold you down so that Mary Lou Hutton could kiss you, you might run as fast as Jeremy Thatcher did the day he stumbled into Mr. Elives' Magic Shop. And if you stumbled into that strange shop, you, too, might be asked to make a choice. What would you buy? The Chinese rings? The Skull of Truth? Or the dragon's egg?

The story begins when Susan Simmons returns to school from spring vacation. Susan has been looking forward to the big class play her teacher has been planning. But to her dismay Ms. Schwartz is gone... replaced by tall, handsome Mr. Smith, a strictly "by the book" teacher with some very strange habits. Investigating her new teacher, Susan makes a shocking discovery: "Mr. Smith" is actually an alien named Broxholm who is planning to abduct five students.

When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island. Why is she there? Where did she come from? And, most important, how will she survive in her harsh surroundings? Roz's only hope is to learn from the island's hostile animal inhabitants. When she tries to care for an orphaned gosling, the other animals finally decide to help, and the island starts to feel like home. Until one day, the robot's mysterious past comes back to haunt her....

Roald Dahl’s wickedly funny novels have turned him into the world’s number one storyteller. In this collection five splendiferous stories are brought to life by the author himself.

Chronicles the adventures and misadventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III as he tries to pass the important initiation test of his Viking clan, the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans, by catching and training a dragon.