Books in Playaway Children series

When Thomas Rose first spots the girl hidden by the roadside, she looks as drab as a lark, with only her red kerchief giving her away. But French Helene, who goes by "Ling," is no ordinary bird. Tiny Ling enchants Thomas with her wild spirit and tales of a circus where she danced atop her beloved horse Belladonna. But the horse has been sold, and Ling must fetch her back, and Thomas's life as a clever but unschooled wheelwright's son is about to change. Their search leads to painter George Stubbs, who euthanizes ailing animals to study their anatomy. Stubbs draws eerie horses that stride as if they could move out of the paper world into the real one — but he assures his young friends that their horse is safe at a nearby estate. As Ling and Thomas devise a risky plan to recover Belladonna, Stubbs hires Thomas as an apprentice, teaching him to read and write as well. In this fascinating story, Mary Finn incorporates a real eighteenth-century artist into a beautifully imagined tale of adventure and young romance.

Every year Hubble Middle School holds a big science fair, which all the students have to enter. It's very competitive: The first prize is $5,000 cash, donated by a Hubble alum who's an Internet billionaire. The problem is, the prize is always won by rich kids from Manor Estates who cheat-- their hyper-ambitious parents hire "coaches" who do the work for the kids, so the kids will have good resumes for college. It turns out that one of the "coaches" is a thug from the country of Kprshtskan -- a country with no vowels. He's actually helping the kids to build components to an EMD -- electro-magnetic device -- that will render all computer chips in the DC area useless, shutting down the federal government. This project, under the cover of a middle school science fair, is relying on the insane competitiveness of the rich parents to actually pay to construct this device. Our heroes figure this out, but of course nobody believes them -- they're just fighting dirty and trying to get the M. E. kids disqualified. They have to disarm the weapon before it's effective and expose the agents from Kprshtskan. And of course, by doing so, win the science fair and the money prize.

The Walkers are moving to a new town, and staying with an aunt who's allergic to dogs. Too bad for Andi and her brother Bruce, who love dogs -- and happen to meet a stray that needs help. Soon, Andi hatches a plan, turning the abandoned house down the block into a hotel for dogs. But as more and more tenants move in, the secret gets too big to keep. Can the kids save their canine castle? Or will the hotel have to close?

Felix lives in a convent orphanage in Poland. He is convinced his parents are still alive and that they will one day come back to get him. When Nazi soldiers come to the orphanage Felix decides to escape and make his way home. The journey to find his parents is a long and difficult one, as Poland is occupied by the Nazis and a dangerous place for a Jewish boy. Felix manages to live and look after himself and another orphan, Zelda, with the help of a kind dentist, Barney, who is hiding and looking after a number of Jewish children. When the Nazis discover them, Barney makes the ultimate sacrifice for the children – electing to go with them on the train to the death camps, rather than taking the option of freedom offered by a Nazi soldier, one of his grateful patients.