Description

Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd. [Published date: 1964]. Hard cover, 154 pp. No other printings listed. Acceptable in acceptable dust jacket. Blue textured boards with dark blue lettering on front and spine. Moderate bumping, scuffing and fading to edges and corners of covers. Binding tight. Bookseller's address stamped on front free end paper. 2" slit to top of half-title page at spine. Pages quite browned with age but otherwise unmarked. Dust jacket has several small chips and tears and moderate creasing to edges. Heavy rubbing to covers as well with the color rubbed off in several spots. 1" patch at bottom of spine has been scratched off where a price sticker was removed. NOT price clipped. Now in an archival quality Brodart cover. NOT Ex-library. NO remainder marks. Black and white illustrations by Elisabeth Grant. Mary Gervaise was a pseudonym of Joan Mary Wayne Brown (1906 - 1998), a prolific writer who published over 70 books, mostly for children. Many of her children's books are stories that involve animals (like this one) or stories about school. She is best known for her Pony stories. The Proving of Paragon involves a golden retriever, but is perhaps most interesting in that it involves a family that moved out of their country estate due to financial difficulties but eventually moves back after the house has been converted into 3 flats or apartments. The children must learn to share their old home and gardens with strangers. An interesting post-war children's story. [From front jacket flap] ‘Want to go back to Croxley and Have dogs and cats again, and all of us stay there for ever and ever.' Bimbo’s cry expresses the feelings of all the Robertsons when their parents have to spend a year in America. And their dream comes true—they do go back to Croxley and live in the country again. But now everything is different—tame, Laurie says : their old friends have gone, the house is divided into flats and they have as their neighbours two old ladies and a strange, grave man with his daughter Tilly, and Paragon, the dog. This is the start of it. The story develops along three lines—the friendship between Tilly Julian and Laurie, the attempted theft of papers belonging to Tilly's father and the wounding of Paragon— and moves fast towards the climax. Bimbo standing by the river on a summer day as danger approaches.