Here's a Penny [Paperback]

From Carolyn Haywood, author of the beloved Betsy series, here are four more classics for young readers. These adorable stories of childhood adventures are as fresh today as when they were written more than a half century ago. And now, thanks to dynamic new covers, they're ready to charm a whole new generation of readers.

Penny's name is really William, but when he was adopted as a baby, he had hair the color of a new copper penny. Adopted or not, Penny decides to prove his friend Patsy wrong when she says he doesn't truly have a family!

Meet six-year-old William, whom everyone calls Penny because of his bright red hair.

Proves beyond any doubt that the gifted author . . . knows little boys as well as she knows little girls. --Publishers Weekly

A Brand-New Penny

They called him Penny. His name wasn't Penn or Penrose or Penrod or anything that would make you think of Penny. His real name was William.

Before Penny came to live with his daddy and mother, his daddy had said, When we get our little boy, let's name him William. Then we can call him Bill.

Not Billy? asked Mother.

Not Billy, nor Willy, nor anything else that ends in ee. Just plain Bill, said Daddy.

Very well! replied Mother. Plain Bill it shall be.

But this is how he happened to be called Penny.

Long before Penny arrived, his mother and daddy decided that more than anything else in the world they wanted a little boy.

A little red-haired boy, his mother used to say.

With freckles on his nose, Daddy would add. And then Mother and Daddy would look at each other and laugh, just because they had said it so many times.

One day Daddy received a telegram from the head of a big hospital. It said that they had some babies that needed fathers and mothers, so Mother and Daddy got right on the train and went to see the babies.

They looked at the babies, one by one. ThelÃ-