Katie Brown finds nine abandoned kittens in a shed on her father’s new farm. She keeps them a secret while finding homes for them as she fears they will be put down.
Susie Jones’ new best friend Julie fancies her older brother Steve. But Steve currently has a date and Susie is trying to keep this secret from Julie as she is scared they will fall out over it.
Blossom, an alien from a flower-based race, adopts human form to take work at the Seaview Hotel.
New girl Josie Goulden looks so sweet and angelic, but Maria Campbell soon finds out that Josie is a nasty schemer who is trying to push her out of her position as class captain with a series of tricks and frame-ups to discredit her. Josie’s tricks have all but Maria’s best friend Beth Parker turning against her, and Maria is finding that Josie is too clever to be caught out.
In time, Maria learns that Josie’s over-indulgent father promises her expensive gifts and vast sums of money if she achieves any particular thing at school, which he sets. As a result, Josie cheats her way to achieve them and receive the rewards her father promises. The reason why Josie pushed Maria out of the class captain job was that her father had promised her a new stereo if she became class captain.
When Josie’s tricks get Maria suspended, Maria and Beth join together for a last-ditch plan to expose her, which succeeds. Josie is expelled and Maria is reinstated to both school and her former position as class captain. Maria forgives her apologetic friends, but doesn’t forget how Josie showed her who her real friends are.
Newcomer Beryl Blake finds it difficult to fit in at her new school and make friends. It gets worse when she is wrongly accused of stealing a peacock brooch from one of her classmates.
Later, Beryl goes to a fortune teller, who warns her that there will be trouble and sadness for her over a brightly coloured bird that is not hers. To offset the bad fortune because of the bird, the fortune teller gives Beryl a whistle that has the power to charm birds. But Beryl is to use it with good intentions because the birds will sense it if she is using the whistle for angry reasons.
Karen Kemp’s grandmothers live on either side of her. The grans have very different ideas about things and this causes a lot of arguing, with the Kemps caught in the middle.
Other Appearances
Dawn Fenton finds a magic shell that can whisper strange messages in rhyme to her.
In Victorian times, Sally is an orphan with no memory of her past and unable to speak. She is taken in by Mrs Crabstick, a beggar woman. But Mrs Crabstick runs a den of thieves and exploits Sally’s inability to speak for begging purposes.
When selfish Pauline Grey gets her portrait done by a street artist, she is told that it will show the true nature of the sitter. Pauline does not believe it, but changes her mind when the portrait begins to change for the worse. Realising she must change her ways if the portrait is to improve, Pauline makes genuine efforts to do so, but things tend to go wrong and the portrait ends up looking bad again.
It is the end of World War II. All the other evacuees have left the Larches, home to Misses Daphne and Edith Burntree. Vi (Violet) Lambeth has stayed on because the housekeeper, Mrs Porter, is kind to her. But then the Misses Burntree sack Mrs Porter and start using Vi as an unpaid servant. They also get rid of the piano Mrs Porter left Vi as a gift, so Vi has to find other ways of playing the piano. And Vi has to contend with bullies at school as well.
