In the years around 1900, Baum had established himself as a successful author of children's literature, most notably with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

In 1906 came Annabel, plus Sam Steele's Adventures on Land and Sea, Baum's first book for adolescent boys.

The prolific Baum had learned from earlier experience that he ended up "competing with himself" if he issued too much material in his own name in a short period of time.

His family has "come down" in the world: though his late father had once owned a steel mill, Will and his mother and siblings now survive by growing vegetables on a two-acre plot of land.

Of the five, Mary Louise[4] is the beauty; her twelve-year-old sister Annabel is plain in comparison, with red hair and freckles and a "pug nose."

Will, however, is a lad of fine character; he is encouraged by the local physician, Dr. Meigs, who joins the Carden family in a mushroom-growing business that relieves their poverty.

Annabel was included in the sixth and final issue of the annual Oz-story Magazine in 2000, with the illustrations of both Hall and Nuyttens.