Harry's Mad
Harry gets a parrot named Madison that could speak as well as himself.
But a thief steals Mad so he had to escape and find a way back.

The Sign of the Beaver
When his father went to fetch the rest of the family, Matt has to fend for himself.
An old Indian chief and his son, helps Matt, soon they had to
 leave so Matt is faced with a dilemma, is he going with the tribe or wait for his father.

No idea for the title yet...
Katie and Jen find a life boat one day that contains a boy,
his younger sister, and a treasure map. Of course they immediately set out for adventure.

Hey, I think you did a great job on these nutshells. They do take practice, and it took me quite some time to figure out how to do them. :-)

The only thing you need to remember is that these summaries are in PRESENT verb tense. Notice your Sign of the Beaver:

When his father went to fetch the rest of the family, Matt has to fend for himself.
An old Indian chief and his son, helps Matt, soon they had to
leave so Matt is faced with a dilemma, is he going with the tribe or wait for his father.

***** I changed it to present tense (see below), but kept your excellent idea....just moved a couple of words around a bit to make it tighter (shorter). Writing "tight" is the hardest thing to learn how to do.

When his father GOES to fetch the rest of the family, Matt has to fend for himself. An old Indian chief and his son help Matt and he is faced with a dilemma--go to the tribe or wait for his father.

*****
As far as the nutshell summary for YOUR story, well done! You kept it in the present tense. Nice!

p.s. Happy Thanksgiving!

Edited by skmarlow on Nov. 27, 2008 at 11:50 AM