Across The Mistercald Series

Meri's parents cannot take her on their trip to England because she suddenly gets sick at the last minute. She's devastated. But, going for a walk the next morning, at the Practice Field she meets the Tackling Dummy, who---by a startling coincidence---also needs to go to England. But Meri cannot go with him. She's staying with her Aunt Am, and she knows it wouldn't be right to simply leave on a trip to England with a Tackling Dummy! Her aunt would worry too much. He needs to go ahead, though. Meri decides to accompany him just a little of the way. They climb over the fence at the far end of the Practice Field and begin to walk. She doesn't want to say goodbye to her new friend! On the grass near a woods they see a strange and attractive ticket---or is it a leaf? Curious, they both reach for it at the same time. They have no idea it's from The Tree of Ticket Leaves! When they turn around, Meri almost jumps out of her skin and the Tackling Dummy almost jumps out of his canvas! They're in The Autumnforest. And standing right behind them is a huge, colorful, and whimsical Buffalo Unicorn. His name is Jethro, and he speaks first.

Meri, the Tackling Dummy, Wut, and Jethro discover the monkeybars and travel on it to The Land of Lavender Thought. Wut is swinging below. The dummies who live there have just finished decorating a spectacular enormous cake. If you're standing near a delicious beautifully decorated cake larger than your house, and you wonder how many layers it has, what do you do? Why, jump in from above, of course, and count the layers as you fall through. "Falling through the cake's immensity, through layer after layer, down, down, down, down, easily floating through sections of icing and then of cake, one after another, Meri counted the layers as she passed: '33-34-35-36...'And finally, approaching the round base, she fell right into the Tackling Dummy's arms." To get to The Land of Pink Windmills, where The Tree of Ticket Leaves now grows, they must cross The Land of The Yellow Trampoline. It's a whole land, beautifully yellow. And they must bounce across it---even Jethro, the huge Buffalo Unicorn! And Wut, the question mark, who already bounces anyway! But first, Wut has a big surprise! It's not small. Slipping down The Sliding Board over a mile long to The Land of Pink Windmills below, they suddenly see huge fireballs, colorful suns, start rolling down behind them from the cliffs above. The gigantic fireballs roll faster than Meri and the Tackling Dummy can slide! There seems to be no way they can be saved!

Now in The Land of Pink Windmillls, Meri at last arrives at The Tree of Ticket Leaves. One leaf---or is it a ticket?---takes her to The Land of Too Shy Izzits, otherwise known as The Land of Dark. There she meets Art or Nart. They talk until The Tornado of Teacups comes by. The second leaf is a great surprise! How could it send her there? Should she return to The Lands? Another ticket takes her to The Autumnforest where she participates in one of the most creative conversations ever. Sticktight then asks a favor. It doesn't seem that much at first. Meri has no idea it will lead her to remarkable adventures! A Black Sky then floats over The Land of Pink Windmills, threatening to remove all sunshine from the beloved land. All of the windmill blades stop turning.

Meri was able to help The Land of Pink Windmills when the croapfs flew The Black Attack , the immense black paper airplane sky, over the land to shut off the sun. But now they have another more ingenious plan. It's far more dangerous than before! The beloved Cleanliness of the land is gone. The beloved Pleasantly Moving Air from the windmills is gone. The awesome Tornado Speed of the windmills is gone! The Land itself is almost gone! Who will help The Land of Pink Windmills this time?! And then Meri tells Wut about the owingstones that Sticktight has asked her to deliver to The Land of Strawberry Dawn. He has never been so excited before! How would you like to look at The Land of Clinging Light at night, from above? It would take a flying wand to do that! Vaguely, Meri can see the various lands rushing by below her as she flies through the night. She can see the lightedness of The Land of Clinging Light in the distance. And soon she's above it! Jethro is an immense Buffalo Unicorn. It takes an amazing colorful crazy idea for him to fly! But there he is in the sky. Flying!

Meri and her friends Jethro, The Tackling Dummy, Wut, and Perfit have crossed over The Mistercald River and go by The Land of Falling You. It's snowing, and sometimes snow falls in the shapes of giant snowflakes, sometimes in the shapes of houses, and sometimes even exactly like YOU if you happen to be passing by or go inside. Imagine copies of YOU falling down as snow! The Land of Raining Faces is nearby, so you may even see your own face made of raindrops. The visitors see other fascinating lands. In The Land of Buffalo Unicorns, they meet Jethro's mother, Meridia. She's extremely friendly---and pleasingly flamboyant! She especially loves hats. She loves Perfit's beautiful yellow hair and wants a wig just like it! They meet Minglemint and Globe, who are also Buffalo Unicorns. As the five friends are flying back across The Mistercald River with their flying wands, suddenly Pumphrey The WaterSpout rises out of the water below them. At the moment he's an enormous whirlpool! He's immediately pleased by the novelty of having company up in the air, where he's usually so lonely. He can't resist approaching. But Perfit is blown out of the saddle and Jethro begins to fall downward toward The Land of Wrong Kites. He has only seconds to live. Here comes the grass! He can see dummies running toward the site of the expected crash. Him! When they reach The Land of Loving Yellow, suddenly Perfit disappears. Someone else loves her beautiful yellow hair. In fact, everyone in the whole Land!

After visiting The Weather Tree and The Emotion Tree in The Land of Loving Yellow, Meri and her friends finally reach The Land of Strawberry Dawn. As a favor to Sticktight, Meri gives the owingstones to the strawberries which are then able to talk. Surprisingly, Perfit has a gift for them too. It's just the right one!! A lively and meaningful conversation begins. Passing The Land of The Hoop Tree Forest again, they see the colorful loveable hoops come flying out to them, ringing their fingers, arms, legs, and even Jethro's unicorn. They make the air a lot of fun. In the distance, the five friends see the dazzling yet intense Land of Firecracker Hail. It's too dangerous to get near. Especially when bad weather is about to fall! But Gozzard and The Roof Hats have other ideas! The roof hats they are wearing---at least five feet across and each a different color---will protect them. But Meri, Wut, Perfit, and then Jethro are led right to the middle of the enormous thunderworld! They don't have anything on their heads. The firecracker sky is so close they can almost reach up and touch it! A few firecrackers begin to explode. At the same time, The Land of Now and Later is not far away. Many of Meri's friends from The Lands are walking in that direction at that very moment. Meri has no idea she might see them again!