Anna Meredith is a talented singer from a hill farm in Wales. She is under contract to Sam Harding and his wife Moira, who are greedy, dishonest and out to exploit Anna’s talent for maximum profit. As a result, Anna is overworked but is having trouble finding the courage to stand up to them or put plans to get out of her contract into operation.
Annie Armstrong’s elder sister Joy returns home with her daughter Tessa. This puts Annie and Tessa in the curious position of being aunt and niece, but they are the same age. The girls are finding this awkward and to make matters worse, Annie is finding her niece a sneaky little schemer.
Trudy Maxwell has been a popular tennis player, but now she has adopted the persona “Terrible Trudy”, the bad girl of tennis. She is trying to win as much money as possible to help her bankrupt father pay off his debts and thinks a bad girl reputation will attract more people to her matches and earn her more money. Her plan is working, but the price is loneliness and unpopularity.
Little Angela Lister wins the title of “Little Miss Loveliness” and is now in great demand to appear at public functions. Only Angela’s sister Karen knows that sweet-looking Angela is in fact a crafty schemer and troublemaker and when she puts on her sweet smile, it means big trouble. Later the story was reprinted with new names, Angela becoming Sue.
Other Appearances:
Sara White is nicknamed Snow White by her father. She finds one of the garden gnomes is actually the youngest of the Seven Dwarfs. His name is Grem, and he has been disowned by the other dwarfs for running off with a gang of naughty elves and then turned into stone by a witch for playing tricks. The name of Snow White was needed to break the spell, and now that has happened, Sara is trying to help Grem reform so his brothers will forgive him. But Grem’s efforts don’t seem to go right.
Beatty Ward is a selfish girl who always wants her own way, and she never helps out or shows consideration for others. One day Beatty grumbles about there being no bingo for kids, but then she is surprised to receive a bingo card in the post – on a Sunday. It comes with the message: “A prize more precious than them all, if by full moon, full house you call.”
It makes no sense until Beatty brings home a football jersey with the number 3 on it and then the number 3 just vanishes from the card. Greed overtakes Beatty and she becomes determined to get all the other numbers on the card by the full moon to collect the riches that must surely be waiting for her.
But as Beatty goes about collecting numbers she finds herself helping others to get the numbers; in one instance she buys a doll for a girl in exchange for an old book with the number 10. She gets up early one morning to look for the last number left on the card, 65, but her mother thinks she is up early to make them breakfast and tells her how nice that is of her. Beatty makes the breakfast as she knows her mum is grateful of the help and then goes looking for the number.
She has no luck, and when she returns home she find the house on fire! She manages to rescue her parents though they end up in hospital. While waiting on news, Beatty realises she doesn’t want money, she just wants her parents to be okay. When she is allowed see her mom she doesn’t care that the room number is 65. A lot of people that she helped end up offering help to the Wards, like a place to stay while their house is repaired.
The number 65 does disappear from the bingo card and the message changes to: “The precious prize that you shall hold is not money, jewels or gold. Kindness and love in thought and deed will make you rich in the life you lead.” Beatty agrees with this new message and will keep the bingo card as a reminder.
Jill Norris’s parents breed Pekinese dogs, but although Jill likes dogs, she does not share their taste for Pekineses. Then Jill finds an injured, stray lurcher she names Jack, and once Jack recovers, Jill decides to train him for dog agility competitions. But Jack has an unruly side that have Jill’s parents concerned.
Frida is very superstitious. So she is alarmed when she joins a new class and finds she is the thirteenth in a class of twelve students. She thinks this will bring bad luck, and many of her interactions with the other students do seem to bring unlucky consequences. Then Frida finds out there was another student who had been absent from school before she joined the class. So she was not the thirteenth after all, and all the ‘bad luck’ was nothing but coincidence.
Tracey’s mum marries another Jenna Jones’ dad. Jenna is happy and wants them all to be a family, but Tracey wants her parent all to herself again, and tries to split them up by various means.
Toni Barton and Pauline Rodgers are both adopted by a kind and well-off couple, the Fletchers. Toni is charming and affectionate, while Pauline is quiet and withdrawn. Toni wants their new parents all to herself and tries to get rid of Pauline while ingratiating herself with the couple. Pauline, being a bit weak-willed, doesn’t do much to stand up for herself, but she finally does so when Toni tries to frame her for cheating and stealing. The father believes Pauline as he had been suspicious of Toni for a while, and he sends her away. Pauline now has the couple to herself, and finally starts calling them Mum and Dad. She also starts coming out of her shell a bit more.
