Diana Sefton is an excellent gymnast at Linwood School despite being completely blind. When she regains her sight after an accident, she keeps it a secret because she cannot bear to part with Goldie, her guide dog. But her conscience keeps niggling.
Hanni Todd, a gipsy orphan had a great gift for healing animals. The local animal doctor feared Hanni would take away all his customers, and had forced her to go into an orphanage where Hanni pined for her freedom. Mistress Crow, the matron of the orphanage, over-worked and under-fed the children, and used the orphanage funds for herself. One day Hanni was sent to treat a horse that belonged to Sir Oliver Christy, a man of great influence. She decided that if she could cure the horse, and earn Sir Oliver’s gratitude, she would tell Sir Oliver what was going on at the orphanage.
The Healing Hands of Hanni – Mandy: #467 (27 December 1975) – #480 (27 March 1976)
Dolly Bird and Carol Lane had been sent to Northend. Burchester, to run a Community House. Northend was a tough neighbourhood. but the girls had managed to gain the friendship and trust of many Northenders.
Dolly Bird – Mandy: #466 (20 December 1975) – #478 (13 March 1976)
Sonya Reeves (Cindy Reeves in the reprints), a very talented young ballet dancer, was competing in secret for the Silver Shoes Trophy (or Crystal Shoes Trophy in the reprints) and the chance of a scholarship to a famous ballet school. Sonya/Cindy was an orphan and her guardian, Vi Burke, ill -treated her and had forbidden her to dance. But Sonya/Cindy had been helped by Mrs Webster, a friendly neighbour, and also the Sister at the hospital where Mrs Webster was taken after a fall. After overcoming many difficulties, Sonya/Cindy had reached the final of the contest.
When three live bears attached themselves to Goldie Lock, it began an adventure which landed Goldie and her friend, Pat Howard on the island of Sawaki. The Sawakians had a colony of these sacred bears. They believed that as long as the bears lived, valuable osmium mines would continue. But their enemies, the Katolians, made a surprise attack and killed all the bears except Goldie’s three, whom she and her friend managed to hide. Losing heart, the superstitious Sawakians surrendered. Goldie was convinced that if they knew that some of the sacred bears were saved, the Sawakians would rise up again. But first a safer hiding place had to be found for the bears.
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.
