Pennington's Seventeenth Summer
 Penn is a troublemaker and is generally disliked by all but two of his teachers, especially Mr Marsh (or ‘Soggy’), who has had it in for him for years. Penn has very little faith in himself or those around him. He habitually causes trouble for himself, due largely to his defensiveness and inability to consider the consequences of his actions. He has already had a number of brushes with the law. Only the games master, Mr Matthews, and his piano teacher, Mr Crocker, see any potential in him. In this book he discovers that his musical ability is much more extraordinary than he had thought and that he may actually enjoy playing the piano. However, his temper and rash behaviour are likely to lead him to jail before he has a chance to see where his talent can take him.