The Gypsies Never Came [Hardcover]

Stephen Roos (Author), Peter Liepke (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2001

He holds his hand up to her face. "Celebrate this? I hate this. I hate this every day."

"You don't mean that," Lydie protests. "When the Gypsies come, you'll understand."

"Don't you get it, Lydie? They never come for gimps like me."

For a small town, Warsaw Junction has a lot of secrets. Who could guess that Augie Knapp, the kid who hides his deformed hand in a glove, has collected most of them...and hides them in an old suitcase?

No one even suspects Augie has a secret of his own until Lydie Rose Meisenheimer blows into town and signs up for sixth grade. Driving a broken-down convertible, wearing a black straw hat, and proclaiming herself Augie's new best friend, she turns his days into embarrassing nightmares.

But she also fills his nights with bright-shining visions of Gypsies -- Gypsies who could make Augie's dreams come true...if only he'd dare to dream a little harder.

The Gypsies Never Came is a bold departure for well-known author Stephen Roos. It's the story of a boy who wants to belong, a story that will make you laugh, break your heart, and change the way you look at the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in a small town with such a timeless quality that contemporary details (computers, malls, The Montel Williams Show) seem almost anachronistic, Roos's (The Terrible Truth) melancholy, not altogether literal tale centers on sixth-grader Augie Knapp. Born with a deformed hand, Augie's sense of being an outsider is compounded by fatherlessness he doesn't even know his father's name. During his after-school job for a dry cleaner, he secretly collects other people's ephemera (letters, receipts, holiday cards), through which he leads a vicarious normality. When Lydie Rose, an enigmatic stranger with seemingly no family, no history and no explanation for her unbounded independence, shows up in Augie's class, she thwarts his attempts to fit in by continually accentuating his differences and telling tales of sympathetic gypsies who will come for him. Although he tries to fend her off, gypsies begin to appear in his dreams. Meanwhile, his mother's new suitor offers to bring Augie to the local lodge's father-son dinner, and it seems that he may finally be like the other guys, to heartbreaking effect. Mystical devices intervene in the final turnabout, and Lydie Rose's influence on Augie remains inconclusive. Readers may have to dig for the meaning (that Lydie Rose is one of the "gypsies," perhaps?), but Roos has filled his story with enriching details, and Augie's palpable yearning couldn't be more human. Ages 8-12. (Mar.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Gr 5-9-A novel written in a lean and propulsive style that draws readers in even as it forces them to make their own determinations about the characters' motivations and feelings. Augie Knapp is a tough but emotionally wounded sixth grader growing up fatherless in Warsaw Junction, PA. The wounds come courtesy of that absent father, whose name Augie doesn't even know, and his birth defect: an almost nonexistent left hand, which he hides inside a stuffed, flesh-colored glove. Augie tries to fill his emptiness and to overcome the occasional hurts inflicted upon him by his sometimes thoughtless or bullying classmates by collecting "secrets"-letters, Christmas cards, report cards, and even condoms left in the pockets of clothes brought in to the laundry where he works after school. He loses his usually adept sense of balance when a new girl appears at school, the apparently much-too-old-for-sixth-grade Lydie Rose. Lydie is immediately drawn to the boy and insists that the gypsies, who will honor the "defect" that sets him apart, are coming to rescue him. The secondary characters-Augie's mother, his uncle, the family next door, his mother's boyfriend (who plays an important role in further wounding Augie)-breathe as secondary characters rarely do, and Roos's restraint in depicting them, almost journalistically, owes as much to the standards of adult literary fiction as to those for books written for children. The Gypsies Never Came deserves a wide and eager audience.-Coop Renner, Moreno Elementary School, El Paso, TX

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689831471
• ISBN-13: 978-0689831478
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,423,520 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A boy learns to celebrate his unusual self., March 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gypsies Never Came (Hardcover)

Augie, the hero of this beautifully written book, is unusual in many ways. He suffers from a physical handicap and a yearning for the father he has never known. When a wonderfully eccentric girl comes to town, she changes his life. At first Lydie Rose is a thorn in Augie's side as she encourages him to celebrate the fact that he is different from other kids. While he slowly comes to believe that the "gypsies" will come for him, the reader is drawn into his world, a realistic small town. I gave this book to my young brother because I recall reading another of the author's books when I was his age. That book was funny. This book is funny too, some of the time. But it is much more than that. It is a story that stays with you, filled with interesting characters. My brother insisted that I read it myself and I enjoyed it as much as he did

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An evocative look at childhood's insecurites, March 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gypsies Never Came (Hardcover)

As a 50 year-old, I don't usually read books for people in this age bracket, but since I bought "The Gypsies Never Came" for the 12-year old daughter of a friend I thought I'd better look through it before I gave it to the girl. I read the first few pages and sat in my chair for the next hour-and-a-half, following Augie through a certain spring when he came to grips with so much of his life. Mr. Roos has an ability to summon the psyche of a child with such accuracy that I was often stunned to recall having felt the same way Augie feels. I heartily recommend this book to anyone looking for something that is entertaining and THEN thought provoking.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Different is Good, March 22, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Gypsies Never Came (Hardcover)

A good story about a boy whose life is hard because he is different. He has a bad hand and he is picked-on by school bullies and suddenly he meets a strange new girl in school. She makes his life even harder until he understands what she is talking about when she tells him that his difference are to be honored not hidden as he hides his deformed hand. The story takes place in an unusual very realistic setting. It seems real. The people in it are interesting and alive. Augie is a boy you have to love. And Lydie Rose is scarey and magic at the same time.