AustLit

Ann has lost the hat she received for her sixth birthday. A tiny elf is using it as his house. When Ann discovers her hat in the field, she arranges to bring an old hat in which the elf can sleep.

A story about the journey of a birthday invitation from the table on which it was written to the hand of the recipient.

When the flour and sugar canisters on the mantelpiece argue about which is the most important, the little green kitchen clock admits he is lonely. The clock is delighted when Mrs Dobson takes him down from the shelf and hopes for a journey through the house. He is dropped, taken to the watchmaker, meets all of the other clocks in the shop, and returns home with an exciting story to tell the canisters.

The anxious red engine is in a hurry. He is too proud to stop and speak to the cows and sheep in the paddocks on his way from the city to the country and back again. Eventually the poor old engine becomes old and worn out and is retired to the yard.

All-alone is very unhappy. He would rather a cottage than a tree. Goblin Good-fellow offers to build him a house among the bluebells. When he has a house, he is lonely and seeks companionship with the rabbit and the frog, who explain that his house is not the kind of place they need to live. Finally, All-alone discovers that the little grey mouse has been living in his cottage since it was built, eating the crumbs from his cake. The elf was, however, always called All-alone because noone else knew that the mouse lived with him.

A little old woman makes a ginger-bread man and names him 'Brownie'. Brownie wants to live with someone who is brown like him, not white skinned and pink cheeked like the little old woman and the little old man. Brownie finds the grey cat, the black and white dog, the black cow before he discovers the brown hen and chickens, who invite him to live with them. The brown chickens quickly gobble him up.