It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. Guts, glory, danger, and sacrifice are all in a day's work for Hank the Cowdog, Head of Ranch Security. While investigating a murder on the ranch, Hank finds himself the number-one suspect.

Get ready for laughs when you listen to these excerpts from ten of Hank's stories. Performed in the style of an old-time radio show, complete with sound effects and a unique voice for each character! You will hear Hank as he bargains for a priceless corncob, learns about manners from Wallace the Buzzard, runs into Rip and Snort the coyote brothers, taunts a raging rottweiler, gets into trouble with Sally May the rancher's wife, and more!

Before they were the Boxcar Children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden lived with their parents on Fair Meadow Farm. Although times are hard, the Aldens are happy - “the best family of all,” Mama likes to say. One day, a blizzard hits the countryside, and a traveling family needs shelter. The Aldens take them in, and the strangers soon become friends. But things never stay the same at the farm, and the spring and summer bring events that will forever change their lives.

He left the West at the age of seventeen, leaving behind a rootless past and a bloody trail of violence. In the East he became one of the wealthiest financiers in America—and one of the most feared and hated. Now, suffering from incurable cancer, he has come back to New Mexico to die alone. But when an all-out range war erupts, Flint chooses to help Nancy Kerrigan, a local rancher. A cold-eyed speculator is setting up the land swindle of a lifetime, and Buckdun, a notorious assassin, is there to back his play.

Freckles is the only name he has ever known. His right hand is missing at the wrist, and he is haunted by not knowing how it happened. Raised since infancy in a Chicago orphanage, he speaks with a slight Irish accent and sings with a beautiful voice. Now, exhausted after many days of walking, he applies for a job with the Grand Rapids Lumber Company, guarding timber in the Limberlost Swamp from timber thieves. His Swamp Angel declares her love for him and promises that she will find his parents and prove that Freckles comes from "a race of men that have been gentlemen for ages."

Told from four-year-old Laura's point of view, this story begins in 1871 in a little log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Laura lives in the little house with her pa, her ma, her sisters Mary and Carrie, and their trusty dog, Jack. Pioneer life is sometimes hard for the family, since they must grow or catch all their own food as they get ready for the cold winter. But it is also exciting as Laura and her family celebrate Christmas with homemade toys and treats, do the spring planting, bring in the harvest, and make their first trip into town.

It was a name that caused the most hardened gunmen to break out in a cold sweat: Texas Ranger Chick Bowdrie. Pursuing the most wanted men in the Southwest, he knew all too well the dusty trails, the bitter cattle feuds, the desperate killers, and the quiet, weather-beaten towns that could explode into mayhem with the wrong word. He had sworn to carry out the law, but there were times when he had to apply justice with his fists and his guns.

The stories in Kerplunk! travel the byways and highways of the Pacific Northwest, bringing to life offbeat, down-home characters who hope their grandchildren can pick the lock on the gun safe because they've forgotten the combination, who know exactly why it costs $500 to make a fly lure that retails for $2, and who aren't afraid to confront the problems of bird-dog flatulence.

His father killed by the British and his home burned, young Tatton Chantry left Ireland to make his fortune and regain the land that was rightfully his. Schooled along the way in the use of arms, Chantry arrives in London a wiser and far more dangerous man. He invests in trading ventures, but on a voyage to the New World his party is attacked by Indians and he is marooned in the untamed wilderness of the Carolina coast. It is in this darkest time, when everything seems lost, that Chantry encounters a remarkable opportunity....

Living and slaving in Fill City One, you get used to the smell. We call it the Everpresent Stink. But every once in a while, on a spring day with a breeze, it clears away enough to remind us that there is something more out there. Most Fillers' wildest dreams would be just to get past the walls and live in the mainland. But my dream? It’s a little bigger. I’m going to Mars.

Freddy the Pig has taken to the skies to save a damsel in distress. Mademoiselle Rose, the lovely bareback rider from Mr. Boorschmidt's Stupendous and Unexcelled Circus, needs Freddy's help. A wealthy but selfish man wants to marry her, and if she doesn't accept his proposal, he vows to close the circus down. So it's up to Freddy to save the beautiful lady and the big top.

In the years after the Omnic Crisis, the American Southwest is ruled by vultures looking to profit off the chaos. The West is ripe for the taking, and Elizabeth Caledonia Ashe intends to write her name across it. When Ashe is arrested yet again on the morning of her high school graduation, her aloof, old-money parents decide to disinherit her from the family fortune. To steal back what's rightfully hers, Ashe teams up with her omnic butler, B.O.B., and local ruffian Jesse McCree for a series of heists, catapulting the trio into a game of fast money and dangerous alliances.

Freddy the Pig needs a break. As editor of the Bean Home News and president of the First Animal Bank, he has no time for himself anymore. So when rich Mr. Camphor wants a summer caretaker, Freddy trots right over to apply. Soon, he's sunning himself on a houseboat, writing a bit of poetry, and even dabbling with his paint set. But Freddy's life of ease quickly comes to an end.

Bowser is a dog detective on the loose, paired with an 11-year-old girl, Birdie. Bowser and Birdie live on the Louisiana coast with Birdie's Grammy. When a prize stuffed marlin is stolen from Grammy's bait and tackle shop, Birdie and Bowser decide to take on the case. But what looks like a straightforward break-in soon becomes as tangled as a tourist's fishing line.

Elana Black has the power to make herself fictional. But when she decides to start saving all the people in books and TV shows who die just for the sake of advancing the plot, she quickly learns that she's not the only one with her powers. All Elana wants to do is save people. But these others don't want the stories to change, and they'll do everything they can to stop her.