Emma Saturday was brought up in a Victorian workhouse. She was forced to run away, but, after many attempts to earn her living by hard work, she was eventually recaptured by Mrs Gould, the cruel workhouse mistress. Emma had pinned all her hopes on her beautiful singing voice but now, back at the workhouse, the future looked very bleak for the hard-working Saturday’s Child.
Lucy Peters and Jenny Bates had always been best friends, but trouble started when a new family moved into the house between theirs. The Smiths had a good-looking teenage son, called Guy–and both Lucy and Jenny were determined to have him as their boyfriend!
Belle and Norma Jennings were keen bell ringers. When they moved to the little village of Larkslea, where the bells of St Ethelbert’s had been silent for years; Belle decided to recruit and train a team of young ringers. They practised hard and improved quickly.
Rita Dare, a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl, longed to become a great skater but had no real talent. She met two strange sisters who gave her the power to skate like a champion—as long as she did everything they told her to. Bill Garth, a Government agent, told Rita that the sisters were using her in order to gain control of the whole world, and that she must break the hold they had on her.
When Pat Wilson’s family move to a new neighbourhood, she finds a strange egg which she takes home. When it hatches a strange creature emerges and Pat names it Thingy.
Ann Adams, captain of junior hockey at Highcroft Comprehensive School, had made friends with an unusual new girl; Wendy Layne. Wendy played hockey in startling bursts of energy that made her unstoppable! The energy came on when Wendy combed her long hair.
Thirteen year old Spring Flowers longed to be good at either ballet or athletics, like her elder sisters, May was star of ballet school and June was a promising athlete. But none of her efforts to compete with her sisters were successful. Then with the help of teacher, she discovered she had a flair for gymnastics. Used to being laughed at by her family she decided to keep her interest secret.
Diana Astley was orphaned after her father died in the First World War and her mother died shortly after. She was given a home by her Aunt Bertha – who turned her into an unpaid servant.
Valerie Hall and her sisters, Edna and Jo. lived in Angel Tower, a high rise block of flats built near Oakhill Estate. The people of Oakhill Estate, where Edna’s boyfriend, Greg Palmer, lived with his family, did not want high flats next to them. To try to cool down the situation, the council organised a contest to choose a Princess of the Tower — the girl who would do most to bring the two communities together. Val was putting on a concert to help the local Home for Crippled Children. Val had made an enemy of Helen Wade, her closest rival in the contest.
Shy Amy Martin was heart-broken when her close friend, Frances Platt, whom she thought the world of, broke off their friendship. Frances had done so, because she realised that Amy was becoming too dependent on her for her own good. Now Amy was trying to find another friend, as Frances had suggested .
