When Joe and Wishbone must confront a scary neighbor who owns a big mean dog, Wishbone imagines himself as the hero Beowulf of Geatland who helps King Hrothgar rid his kingdom of the terrible monster Grendel and his equally fearsome mother.

During a fast-paced roller hockey game in which an awkward boy is humiliated by the other players, Wishbone imagines himself as Quasimodo, the hunchbacked bellringer of Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral, who defeats his enemies and saves the life of a beautiful gypsy.

While pursuing the stranger who ran off with Joe's basketball, Wishbone imagines himself to be the young sailor Ishmael on Captain Ahab's whaling ship chasing the great white whale, Moby Dick, across the seven seas.

Locked out of the school while Joe and his friends are inside, Wishbone imagines himself as D'Artagnan, a young seventeenth-century Frenchman who achieves his dream of becoming one of the prestigious musketeers who guard the king and his court.

Because Wishbone keeps getting interrupted while trying to take a nap, he begins thinking about Rip Van Winkle and finds himself in Rip's shoes, finally waking to a changed world.