The Missing Boy

by Joan Dell

Deborah lived in Berkely Square, London. She had to tidy up after her silly stepsisters. She had to sweep and scrub. She had to comfort her childish stepfather when he was discouraged - which was often. And next door, in a darkened room, lay the young American boy. Perhaps, more than any of them, he needed her help.
This was Deborah's troubled life until the amazing Serena appeared from a world of another dimension. "Suppose," Serena said, "you had never seen the real trees but only their images in the pool And suppose one day you turned round and saw the living trees. How different they would look! How much more beautiful!"
When Deborah slips into Serena's world, she finds it crowded with vivid new experiences - some of them beautiful, nearly all of them mystifying. She learns she has Something Very Important To Do. She meets the Missing Boy and, in trying to help him find himself, she runs afoul of King Gondolphus, the blustery giant; Quodling, the world's worst detective; and Vitriol, the king's wily and cynical prime minister.
Her adventures in this strange world multiply, but Berkely Square is still there - and with it are all her responsibilities. In a skillful blend of fantasy and reality, Joan Dell takes Deborah's two worlds and begins to close them into one. In each Deborah faces a decision, in each there is a sacrifice, in each a mysterious reward.

192 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1958