An introduction to a day at school. Readers can count P.B. Bear's pencils, identify the colours and shapes that P.B. Bear paints, do simple sums with P.B. Bear and learn about opposites in the playground.

The tale begins over three-hundred years ago, when the Fair People—the goblins, fairies, dragons, and other fabled and fantastic creatures of a dozen lands—fled the Old World for the New, seeking haven from the ways of Man. With them came their precious jewels: diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls... But then the Fair People vanished, taking with them their twelve fabulous treasures. And they remained hidden until now... Across North America, these twelve treasures, over ten-thousand dollars in precious jewels, are buried. The key to finding each can be found within the twelve full color paintings and verses of The Secret. Yet The Secret is much more than that. At long last, you can learn not only the whereabouts of the Fair People's treasure, but also the modern forms and hiding places of their descendants: the Toll Trolls, Maitre D'eamons, Elf Alphas, Tupperwerewolves, Freudian Sylphs, Culture Vultures, West Ghosts and other delightful creatures in the world around us. The Secret is a field guide to them all. Many "armchair treasure hunt" books have been published over the years, most notably Masquerade (1979) by British artist Kit Williams. Masquerade promised a jewel-encrusted golden hare to the first person to unravel the riddle that Williams cleverly hid in his art. In 1982, while everyone in Britain was still madly digging up hedgerows and pastures in search of the golden hare, The Secret: A Treasure Hunt was published in America. The previous year, author and publisher Byron Preiss had traveled to 12 locations in the continental U.S. (and possibly Canada) to secretly bury a dozen ceramic casques. Each casque contained a small key that could be redeemed for one of 12 jewels Preiss kept in a safe deposit box in New York. The key to finding the casques was to match one of 12 paintings to one of 12 poetic verses, solve the resulting riddle, and start digging. Since 1982, only two of the 12 casques have been recovered. The first was located in Grant Park, Chicago, in 1984 by a group of students. The second was unearthed in 2004 in Cleveland by two members of the Quest4Treasure forum. Preiss was killed in an auto accident in the summer of 2005, but the hunt for his casques continues.

P.B. Bear is a very special bear, and today is a very special day. Young children are invited to his early learning birthday party where they will: help find his friends; count the candles on his cake; guess what's inside the parcel; and search for tiny bear in every scene.

Explores the subject of emotions by answering such questions as "Why are silly games so much fun," "Why do I cry when I'm feeling sad," and "Why are some people scared of mice or insects?"

The reader is asked to guess the names of items that P.B. Bear is using as he plants seeds, goes out in the rain, takes a bath and more.

When her best friend's house is threatened with foreclosure, young Annie Jenkins is full of ideas to save the home. But when Annie tracks a lost treasure to Jason's backyard, she's sure the booty will be enough to save Jason's family.

P.B. Bear plays hide-and-seek while the reader is asked to find his hiding places around the house.