Status
Available
Call number
Publication
A Yearling Book (Dell)
Pages
186
Description
The discoveries and adventures of ten-year-old Lucinda, who spends a wonderful year exploring the New York City of the 1890's.
Description
Roller Skates opens with the narrator remembering back to a special year in the 1890s, when young Lucinda Wyman arrives at the Misses Peters' home in New York City; the two ladies will care for her during the year of Lucinda's parents' trip to Italy. The narrator's diaries help her remember the details of 10-year-old Lucinda's "orphanage," as she calls it. Miss Peters, a teacher, is "a person of great understanding, no nonsense, and no interference."[1] Miss Nettie is shy and soft-hearted. Living with them Lucinda experiences unprecedented freedom, exploring the city on roller skates and making friends with all types of people.
Lucinda quickly gets to know Mr. Gilligan the hansom cab driver and Patrolman M'Gonegal. The first friend of her own age is Tony Coppino, son of an Italian fruit stand owner. Lucinda enlists Officer M'Gonegal to stop the bullies who knock down Tony's father's fruit-stand and steal the fruit. In return Tony takes her for a city picnic where they meet a rag-and-bone man. Later Lucinda reads Shakespeare with her favorite uncle and is inspired to put on a puppet production of The Tempest.
But the cold and snow of winter keep her cooped up indoors, and eventually a restless Lucinda acts out—and gets sent home from school in disgrace. Later her uncle introduces her to Shakespeare's tragedies, and she experiences her own when two of her friends die. With Lucinda's parents coming back from Italy she realizes everything is changing. So she skates to the park one last time. "How would you like to stay always ten?" she muses. "That's what I'd call a perfectly elegant idea!"[
Lucinda quickly gets to know Mr. Gilligan the hansom cab driver and Patrolman M'Gonegal. The first friend of her own age is Tony Coppino, son of an Italian fruit stand owner. Lucinda enlists Officer M'Gonegal to stop the bullies who knock down Tony's father's fruit-stand and steal the fruit. In return Tony takes her for a city picnic where they meet a rag-and-bone man. Later Lucinda reads Shakespeare with her favorite uncle and is inspired to put on a puppet production of The Tempest.
But the cold and snow of winter keep her cooped up indoors, and eventually a restless Lucinda acts out—and gets sent home from school in disgrace. Later her uncle introduces her to Shakespeare's tragedies, and she experiences her own when two of her friends die. With Lucinda's parents coming back from Italy she realizes everything is changing. So she skates to the park one last time. "How would you like to stay always ten?" she muses. "That's what I'd call a perfectly elegant idea!"[
Series
Collection
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1936
Physical description
186 p.; 7.5 inches
ISBN
044047499X / 9780440474999
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User reviews
LibraryThing member MaowangVater
Ten-year-old Lucinda has an exciting year roller-skating about Manhattan while her parents are away in Italy, She quickly makes friends with Irish cab-drivers and policemen, Italian fruit-vendors, actors, a night reporter, a starving violinist and his family, a Turkish lady and many others outside
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herr private school and social class. Her uncle introduces her to Shakespeare. She learns comedy and then tragedy from both Shakespeare and life. Show Less
LibraryThing member juliette07
In 1937 this delightful book won the Newbery Medal. When the author Ruth Sawyer received the medal she let her audience into the secret that she herself had known the ten year old Lucinda intimately – ‘Lucinda and I had the same mother’. The acceptance speech is printed at the start of my
Full of imagination Lucinda exclaims ‘I have joined a lucky orphanage’ and is excited at the thought of sleeping in a folding bed. We hear later of how books filled a large portion of her inner world – many then listed will be familiar to us as we see them in the lists of today, like Peter Boxall’s 1001 Books to Read Before You Die. I loved the her joy and love of playing with words!
Ruth Sawyer tells us ‘Nature had succeeded in pumping her full of ideas and energy which ran amuck when not worked off’. Needless to say books inspired her and she, rather like us wanted to share that love. We hear how Lucinda while reading Shakespeare to Tony ‘She noticed with a quickening eye how the imagery caught at Tony’s spirit. He sucked in his breath at this new discovery of beauty in words’. How wonderful is that !
Despite being of a different era I loved the language used and the way in which that love of language is so much to the fore throughout this book! Highly recommended.
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copy and was a joy to read. Ruth spoke about the ‘urge of freedom for a child’. In this simple story we see Lucinda roller skating around the city learning what it means to ‘belong’, learning about ‘everyday people’ and within the same year learning through experience of the big questions of life and death. Behind the apparent simplicity I could not help but reflect upon the generation of young Lucindas and their experiences as they yearn for such freedom. Full of imagination Lucinda exclaims ‘I have joined a lucky orphanage’ and is excited at the thought of sleeping in a folding bed. We hear later of how books filled a large portion of her inner world – many then listed will be familiar to us as we see them in the lists of today, like Peter Boxall’s 1001 Books to Read Before You Die. I loved the her joy and love of playing with words!
Ruth Sawyer tells us ‘Nature had succeeded in pumping her full of ideas and energy which ran amuck when not worked off’. Needless to say books inspired her and she, rather like us wanted to share that love. We hear how Lucinda while reading Shakespeare to Tony ‘She noticed with a quickening eye how the imagery caught at Tony’s spirit. He sucked in his breath at this new discovery of beauty in words’. How wonderful is that !
Despite being of a different era I loved the language used and the way in which that love of language is so much to the fore throughout this book! Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member SHARONTHEIL
Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer is a fun read set in 1890's New York City. It is a comedy of manners where the heroine, Lucinda, is supposed to be lady-like but continuously shocks her snobby social set by roller skating her way to school and befriending cab drivers and apple cart men. Her family
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considers her homely and unladylike to begin with, so she just keeps being herself no matter what her stylish family expectations. Show Less
LibraryThing member debnance
“Who wanted to walk through lonely years, right foot, left foot, and never change step---never skip, run or skate?”That’s Lucinda, an Anne-of-Green-Gables girl, filled with energy and enthusiasm, unexpectedly set loose in the city of New York. Lucinda’s parents head off to Europe for their
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health and Lucinda is left in the care of two very relaxed school teachers. She travels around New York City, befriending the poor and the lonely, on roller skates. What a surprise to see a girl of the 1890’s, a society girl raised with all the Victorian rules and regulations stamped upon her, free to make friends with homeless men and battered wives of new immigrants and fruit sellers! I liked this book a lot. I wonder if Lucinda is able to keep her friends and her freedom once her parents have returned and regained control. Show Less
LibraryThing member kraaivrouw
I was thinking about this book for months before I decided to find it again. I read and re-read this when I was growing up. I loved it then and I love it now.
Lucinda Wyman is a tomboy who doesn't fit into the box that her time and place would like to put her in. Her parents' trip to Italy buys her
Lucinda Wyman is a tomboy who doesn't fit into the box that her time and place would like to put her in. Her parents' trip to Italy buys her
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a year of freedom in which to explore 1890's New York on roller skates. The story of Lucinda, the wonderful people she befriends in the amazing city she loves was mesmerizing to me as a kid. I loved Lucinda and could relate to her because I didn't quite fit in, either, and I loved to read and talk to all kinds of people, and I made puppets and put on plays with them and adored [book:The Tempest|12985]. I still love just about all of those things (although I don't do puppet shows anymore) and I still love this book with its simple pleasures and enduring tragedies and joy of being alive and free out in the great big wonderful world. Show Less
LibraryThing member tjsjohanna
This novel is a curious mix of enthusiastic zest and heartbreaking sorrow. I loved Lucinda over the course of this story - she was wholeheartedly kind and thoughtful. The nicest part of this novel was the fact that although Lucinda was given more reign over her life, she used the freedom in such
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good ways - and there was a little spice of naughtiness tossed in. Definitely one to re-read. Show Less
LibraryThing member ShondaNewsome
Summary:
Lucinda is a 10 year old orphan, whose parents moved to Itaily and left Lucinda in a orphangage in New York. Everyday, Lucinda would put on her skates and tour the city very pleased to meet different people wherever she goes. Regardless of the people she meets situation, her character and
Personal Relations:
I can relate to this story because it sends a great message to love one another regardless if their situation is positive and negative.
Classroom Extension:
1. Students will draw a pair of skates and write positive something positive about them.
2. Present their skates to their classmates.
Lucinda is a 10 year old orphan, whose parents moved to Itaily and left Lucinda in a orphangage in New York. Everyday, Lucinda would put on her skates and tour the city very pleased to meet different people wherever she goes. Regardless of the people she meets situation, her character and
Show More
charisma is very remarkable to not judge others but to love. Personal Relations:
I can relate to this story because it sends a great message to love one another regardless if their situation is positive and negative.
Classroom Extension:
1. Students will draw a pair of skates and write positive something positive about them.
2. Present their skates to their classmates.
Show Less
LibraryThing member romeo14v
A Newbery Medal Award Winner, Roller Skates is about a 10 year old girl named Lucinda Wyman growing up in a well off family who only wants to roller skate. As Sawyer continues, Lucinda’s parents take a vacation to Italy, leaving her in the care of Miss Peters and Miss Nettie in New York City. Oh
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the possibilities. Lucinda is overwhelmed with all the opportunities she now has to roller skate throughout the city. With each turn she takes, she is met with new experiences that will forever change her life. Sawyer did a wonderful job in her storytelling making this book both lively and tender. Show Less
LibraryThing member afrazier13
This book is about a young girl who is sent to boarding school while her parents vacation in Italy. She ventures out through thy city on her roller skates making lots of new friends and learning new things. She gets herself kicked out of school and learns how to deal with tragedy when her friends
My personal reaction to this book was that it was sad but good. It was well written and children could learn a little about shakespeare in the process.
Children could do a study on New York City.
Children could play outside with roller-skates for recess.
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die.My personal reaction to this book was that it was sad but good. It was well written and children could learn a little about shakespeare in the process.
Children could do a study on New York City.
Children could play outside with roller-skates for recess.
Show Less
LibraryThing member samuelsaiz
Summary:
This book is about a young girl that comes from a family with money. Her family goes out of town to Italy and she is sent to New York. When she is there she finds that she can do what she loves, roller skate. She skates in all kinds of place in New York and meets a lot of new people. All
Reflection:
I would like to teach kids about having the confidence to be who they are. Everyone has some sort of expectations, but it is ok to be who you are.
This book is about a young girl that comes from a family with money. Her family goes out of town to Italy and she is sent to New York. When she is there she finds that she can do what she loves, roller skate. She skates in all kinds of place in New York and meets a lot of new people. All
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these people she meets are different. She meets a cab driver, vendor and a cop. She has a great time during skating in New York. Although she comes from money, she is not a snobby little girl.Reflection:
I would like to teach kids about having the confidence to be who they are. Everyone has some sort of expectations, but it is ok to be who you are.
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LibraryThing member klburnside
Roller Skates is the story of Lucinda, a wealthy young girl in New York City in the 1890s. Her parents spend a year in Italy, leaving Lucinda in the care of two local women. Lucinda enjoys her year of freedom from the restrictive environment of manners, learning to sew, and the rules of being a
I appreciated the spunkiness of Lucinda and her shunning of the prim and proper culture she was supposed to be a part of. There was this really weird part in the middle of the book. One of the people Lucinda meets is this Asian princess who seems to be under the control of an abusive husband. One day, Lucinda goes to the apartment of the princess and finds her dead on the couch, with a ceremonial dagger stuck in her chest. She runs to another apartment in the building, where the neighbor urges her to leave the building, report nothing, and pretend she was never there. The event isn't really mentioned with any significance again. What??!!
Overall, a somewhat fun adventure story, a strong, likeable female protagonist, but not really enough substance or engaging narrative to merit more than 3 stars. 1937 Newbery winner.
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lady. Instead, she spends the year skating around the city on her roller skates having all sorts of adventures and meeting lots of interesting people.I appreciated the spunkiness of Lucinda and her shunning of the prim and proper culture she was supposed to be a part of. There was this really weird part in the middle of the book. One of the people Lucinda meets is this Asian princess who seems to be under the control of an abusive husband. One day, Lucinda goes to the apartment of the princess and finds her dead on the couch, with a ceremonial dagger stuck in her chest. She runs to another apartment in the building, where the neighbor urges her to leave the building, report nothing, and pretend she was never there. The event isn't really mentioned with any significance again. What??!!
Overall, a somewhat fun adventure story, a strong, likeable female protagonist, but not really enough substance or engaging narrative to merit more than 3 stars. 1937 Newbery winner.
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LibraryThing member nittnut
I read this as a child and loved it. I enjoyed reading it again. Set in NY in the 1890's. A young girl is left with one of her school teachers while her parents travel to Italy for her mother's health. She is a feisty, lovable character and enjoys the unusual freedom of life without servants and
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governess. She makes friends with everyone, and helps those she can. A sweet, old fashioned story. Show Less
LibraryThing member fuzzi
Lucinda is a different child, not conforming to certain "standards" her parents and Aunt Emily think she should. While her parents are away for a year Lucinda stays with less restrictive guardians and discovers that life offers good and bad, happy and sad experiences that will guide and mold her
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into adulthood. Worthy of the Newberry medal it won. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Newbery Medal (Medal Winner — 1937)
Call number
J3D.Saw