Laura Clark has been granted a free place at High Hurdles, an exclusive girl’s boarding school that specialises in riding. But the snobby girls are outraged and start playing tricks on Laura.
Rosemary Wilson has been taken prisoner by the Arkans, a strange people who never smile. Some of the families are now trying to escape, with Rosemary as their leader. Rosemary is puzzled as to why the Arkans do not seem to be pursuing them. Could it have a connection with the mysterious illness that is now striking the fugitives?
Princess Pandora of Rozeinberg has been imprisoned in a tower since she was a baby. She is eventually liberated, but her imprisonment has made her tough and rough. While proving popular with her subjects, Pandora’s rough ways shock her snobby cousins. They hire a forester to get rid of her. He imprisons her again, this time in a windmill, and she will perish there if she does not get help in time.
Sarah Taylor hardly seems Miss World material. She is tomboyish, tough, slovenly, does not care for her appearance or charm, hates makeup, works as a mechanic, and thinks the idea of becoming Miss World is ludicrous. Nonetheless, Sarah’s sister Alice is convinced that she does have what it takes to become Miss World and sets out to her into a beauty queen. But the problems Alice has to surmount with Sarah are not making the road to the Miss World title easy.
Canadians Jane and Joe Donnelly have been brought up in a strictly run sect, The Children of Carona. They have to get special dispensation from their sect to pursue ice-skating careers. Then disaster strikes when Joe’s sight begins to fail, and the beliefs of their sect forbid him from seeking treatment. Their trainer, Myra Calvert, investigates the sect and discovers it is being run by racketeers – who are now out to kill the Donnellys.
Freckles Wilson, an orphan, lived with her relatives on their farm on the edge of the Florida Swamps. They treated her cruelly and Freckles’ only friend was a pet frog she called Ferdy. However, Uncle Eli discovered Ferdy was a champion jumper and took him from Freckles to train for contests. After Ferdy was scared away by Aunt Ida, he was found by Brett Corcoran, who claimed him. There was a court case to decide owner-ship and a demonstration of affection between Freckles and Ferdy settled the case in favour of the Wilsons.
Kate Williams is about to be adopted by Lord and Lady Lester when she is badly burned in fire caused by nasty Emily West. When she recovers, she discovers that Emily is posing as her to be adopted in her place. Kate goes into the household as a scullery maid to expose Emily, but is impeded by the loss of her voice from the fire and being illiterate. She is overcoming the latter by learning to write, but Emily keeps sabotaging her efforts to prove her identity, and eventually gets her thrown into prison.
Scheming maidservant Hetty Brown tricks the Honourable Harriet Mannering into trading places with her. Harriet strives to prove her identity agains the increasingly nasty tricks from Hetty to stop her, and and in the meantime Harriet is discovering how hard the life of a servant can be.
In ancient China, Linyi is maid of the Chinese Emperor’s Dogs, known as the Lion Dogs. She faces big trouble if anything happens to them – and each week, something does (illness, being naughty, going missing etc) – and she has to use quick wits to solve the problem as fast as possible.
Shona and John are engaged to be married. Shona’s sister, Jane, keeps sabotaging her modelling career in order to ensure Shona gets married, which she believes is what will make Shona truly happy.