The stone of chastity
[From the back cover]

What is any woman's MOST PRIVATE SECRET?

What happens when the whole town FINDS OUT?

Someone uncovered an old legend that any girl who slips and falls on a certain stone in a nearby stream has, well, already slipped.

The results are havoc and hilarious as one by one the local boys maneuver the girls down to the bank and start them wading across...

> An amiable bit of nonsense, as rowdy
> as it is delightful.
 - *The New Yorker*

> One of my top picks for a rainy day
> re-read, or a bad cold re-read, or
> just a bad day re-read, this is the
> story of a professor who thinks he's
> discovered an ancient stone in a
> village stream that's possessed of
> special powers—no impure woman can
> step on the stone without falling into
> the water.  Outraged sensibilities and
> outrageous antics result.
 - Scott at *FURROWED MIDDLEBROW*
Virginity, Fiction, Science fiction
Margery Sharp
Margery Sharp was born Salisbury, Wiltshire. She attended Chiswick House High School in Malta in 1912-1913, and Streatham Hill High School 1914-1923. In 1925 she went to Bedford College, earning a general arts degree and then a BA in French. She studied art for one year at Westminster Art School. After school she became a full-time writer, writing short stories and working on a novel. In 1938 she married Major Geoffrey Castle, an aeronautical engineer. During World War II she served as an Army Education Lecturer, travelling and lecturing and continuing to write. She produced 26 novels for adults, 14 stories for children, 4 plays, 2 mysteries, and many short stories. Her most famous work is The Rescuers series about a mouse named Miss Bianca, which was adapted in two animated feature films, The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under.

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The Rescuers original book series list:
1. The Rescuers 1959 (quite different from the movie)
2. Miss Bianca 1962
3. The Turret 1963
4. Miss Bianca in the Salt Mines 1967
5. Miss Bianca in the Orient 1970
6. Miss Bianca in the Antarctic 1971
7. Miss Bianca and the Bridesmaid 1972
8. Bernard the Brave 1977
9. Bernard into Battle 1978 (reviewer's note: violence, not recommended for small children)

Novelizations of the Disney movies, The Rescuers (1977) and The Rescuers Down Under (1990) are also available.