Books in Playaway Children series

Princess Patricia Priscilla is bored with her royal life and the excitement surrounding her sixteenth birthday ball. Doomed to endure courtship by three grotesquely unappealing noblemen, she escapes her fate--for a week. Disguised as a peasant, she attends the village school as the smart new girl, "Pat," and attracts friends and the attention of the handsome schoolmaster. Disgusting suitors, lovable peasants, and the clueless king and queen collide at the ball, where Princess Patricia Priscilla calls the shots. What began as a cure for boredom becomes a chance for Princess Patricia Priscilla to break the rules and marry the man she loves.

As summer is coming to an end, Rachel's troubles are just beginning. Not only does she have a new baby sister to deal with, but she has an ornery cat on the loose, too. Rachel begins to feel that life just isn't fair. When her jealousy leads her to take a trip to an amusement park with her English friend – without her parents' permission – her problems only get worse. Will Rachel ever learn to be content?

School's out! And so is an energetic Amish girl with trouble following close on her barefooted heels! When nine-year-old Rachel Yoder isn't bringing frogs to church or taking wild buggy rides, she's setting fireflies free and trying out new skateboards in all the wrong places. Will Rachel's friends and family survive the mischief she brings into their lives - and will Rachel learn any life lessons along the way?

In 1900 the American writer L. Frank Baum published a children's book that quickly became a bestseller. That book was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It is about a little girl from Kansas called Dorothy Gale, who with her dog Toto is swept up by a cyclone and transported across a vast desert to the Land of Oz. In this magical land, Dorothy makes friends with a scarecrow, a tin woodman and a lion, who are all able to talk. Together they all conquer the Wicked Witch of the West and journey to the Emerald City, where they discover that the man they had thought to be a wonderful wizard was in fact a charlatan – he didn't have the powers they thought he had. Although she dearly loves her companions in the Land of Oz, Dorothy is homesick for her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. As the false wizard does not have the ability to send her back home to Kansas, Dorothy journeys to the domain of the good witch Glinda in the south, hoping that this beautiful lady will be able to help her. Glinda explains to Dorothy that the little girl herself has the power she needs in the silver slippers that she wears, which once belonged to the Wicked Witch of the East. All she has to do is make a wish that she and Toto be returned to Kansas and click her heels together three times – then the wish will be granted. At the end of the book, Aunt Em comes out of the house to water the cabbages when she sees Dorothy and Toto running toward her. 'My darling child! Where in the world did you come from?' cries Aunt Em. 'From the Land of Oz,' says Dorothy gravely. For the thousands of children who read and loved the book, Oz became one of those magical countries that they wanted to visit again and again. In 1902 a stage production of the story toured America, creating more eager young fans. Such was the clamour for another tale set in Oz that L. Frank Baum sat down to write The Marvelous Land of Oz. It was published in 1904. The author describes the sequel as 'an account of the further adventures of the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman', and these two characters are definitely the stars of the story. Baum may have had future stage productions in mind when he wrote The Marvelous Land of Oz, as he dedicates his new book to 'those excellent good fellows and eminent comedians David C. Montgomery and Frank A. Stone whose clever personifications of the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow have delighted thousands of children throughout the land'.

Meet a town and a train and a time and a boy – Jimmy Cannon. And meet his father – as strong as a Mallet locomotive – whom Jimmy simply cannot figure out! But who, in a dramatic and unexpected twist, turns out to be so much more than Jimmy ever knew. In a book that goes to the core of boyhood – its Halloween mischief, its hunting day mystery, its championship football game surprise, and its nighttime adventures – Fran Cannon Slayton brings her listeners to the breathtaking crossroads of an unforgettable West Virginia railroad town, a family that matters, and adulthood itself.

Josh feels like he's starting to make it big! Jaden, the school reporter, says he's going to take the baseball team to number one. Then his dad pulls him off the field and signs him up with Coach Rocky Valentine's youth championship team, the Titans. He says Josh has what it takes to be a baseball great-and the Titans will help him get there. Now Josh is gulping down Rocky's “Super Stax” milkshakes to build muscle and trying to fit in with his new teammates-older, tougher kids who can suddenly become violent. All Josh really wants to do is play ball, but as he gets in deeper with the Titans, there are questions he's just got to ask. As Josh and his new friend Jaden investigate their suspicions, they find themselves in a dangerous struggle with a desperate man who doesn't want them to expose the nasty secrets they uncover.

Nim lives on an island in the middle of the wide blue sea, shared by only her father, Jack, a marine iguana called Fred, a sea lion called Selkie, a turtle called Chica, and a satellite dish for her e -- mail. No one else in the world lives quite like Nim, and she wouldn't swap places with anyone. But when Jack disappears in his sailing boat and disaster threatens her home, Nim must be braver than she's ever been before. And she needs help from her friends, old and new. Wendy Orr is the author of Peeling the Onion, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults. She lives with her dog and other family in the hills by the sea in southern Australia.