Pat is an adorable little sea otter. She likes turning up her toes and floating in the sea, chasing fish, and asking a hundred and one questions. One day, Pat makes friends with another otter, Bobby. The two enjoy playing and exploring together, until their lives are unexpectedly turned upside down when they get caught up in a storm and washed ashore on an island.

Otto isn't an ordinary penguin: he is the first penguin chick to be born that year, which means that it is his job to look after all the other young penguins. But out in the snow and ice of Antarctica there is an awful lot to learn, and Otto has to discover for himself how to swim, dive, and catch fish before he can teach anyone else. And how will he do that when all the grown-ups are too busy to help?

Hilda is a small, speckled hen. She is brave and very single-minded. When she hears that her aunt has just hatched five baby chicks, she is very excited, and can’t wait to go and see them. There is a problem; however her aunt lives five miles away. How will Hilda ever travel all the way to her farm? But she has her heart set on getting there, and goes out to hitch a lift on a rubbish lorry, a fire engine, a scooter and even a steam roller!

Suzy is a small striped cat with long white whiskers, who lives in a French seaside village with a fisherman and his four sons. She likes living in France, chasing butterflies and being stroked the wrong way. She doesn't like straying too far from home. But like all cats, Suzy is very inquisitive - which causes problems when she climbs into the basket of a hot-air balloon, falls asleep, and is carried up, up, and away over the Channel to England!

Pim is a baby aardvark, with a long, furry nose. He has tiny little claws instead of fingers and toes, and sleeps in a cosy burrow. But he isn't sure what being an aardvark really means. He asks his mother all sorts of questions, and she decides it is time he found out what being an aardvark is all about. In his quest to discover the world around him, he meets lots of exotic and interesting animals. There are snakes, cheetahs, elephants, and monkeys, and they all have something to teach him.