A Cow Called Boy
C. Everard Palmer, Charles E. Gaines
Hardcover
(The Bobbs- Merrill Company, March 15, 1972)
It is the start of a new school year in Kendal, Jamaica, and Josh is determined not to be late. He sets off in good time... but so does his beloved bull-calf, Boy, who follows him everywhere like a dog. Josh's teacher is horrified to see Boy in the classroom but Josh manages to turn the situation to good advantage - until things start to go badly wrong. When the headmaster tells Josh's mother the story of Boy's disastrous visit to school she insists that the calf is sold at once. The local storeman buys him in spite of Josh's protests, driving a hard bargain. But Josh is a fighter; he organises his schoolfriends to mount first a demonstration and then a hunger strike in his campaign to get Boy back. The villagers, hostile at first, are soon on his side. Before long the embarrassed store man realizes that he has not been as clever as he thought. About the author: C. Everard Palmer was born in Jamaica and lived there until a few years ago, when he moved to Canada. His childhood was spent in just such a village as Kendal, lived in by the kind of people who fill the pages of this book. All his stories have been inspired by memories of his childhood and though the people and incidents he describes are imaginary they could easily have been real.