Roller Skates [Hardcover]

Ruth Sawyer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0844663433 | ISBN-13: 978-0844663432 | Publication Date: December 1990

The discoveries and adventures of ten-year-old Lucinda, who spends a wonderful year exploring the New York City of the 1890's.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grades 4-7--This recording of the 1937 Newbery Award-winning book by Ruth Sawyer (Penguin Putnam, pap. 1986) is read by television and stage actress Kate Forbes. The story takes place in New York City in the 1890s, during the year of 10-year-old Lucinda's "orphanage." That's Lucinda's term for her situation when her parents go to Italy and leave her in the care of Miss Peters and Miss Nettie. Lucinda, enjoying her freedom, explores the city on roller skates and makes friends wherever she goes. She reads Shakespeare with her uncle, puts on her own production of The Tempest, creates a magical Christmas for a little girl from an impoverished family, helps a family protect their fruit stand from attacks by rowdy boys, and has picnics in a vacant lot , among other adventures. Forbes does a good job with the reading, conveying Lucinda's enthusiasm but not becoming overly dramatic. However, the story suffers from age. Certain expressions and references are likely to elude most children (and even many adults). The obligatory tragedies (the death of Trinket, the unexplained murder of a woman Lucinda befriends) seem a little maudlin. There is also some ethnic stereotyping, typical of the time, that is unacceptable today. However, in libraries where Newbery books are always in demand, this audio-book will help make an older book a little more accessible to young readers.
Sarah Flowers, Santa Clara County Library, Morgan Hill, CA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Peter Smith Pub Inc (December 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844663433
• ISBN-13: 978-0844663432
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,196,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful, sensitive - a true classic, January 13, 2005

By 

Reading Machine (Bedford, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roller Skates (Newbery Library, Puffin) (Paperback)

I've never been to the Big Apple, but I wish I could visit the Old New York explored by gallant Lucinda in her magical "orphan" year, rather than the modern one. It is sad to think that the statue of Diana that Lucinda loved, proudly standing watch over Madison Square Garden, is now gathering dust in a museum...
And I must say I am baffled by reviewers who feel that Lucinda is not touched or affected by the two tragedies that darken her life during the course of the narrative. This is one of the most realistic and moving accounts of a child's reaction to death - frightened, confused yet bravely hopeful - that I have read.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a book to treasure, October 1, 2001

By 

Lalalalaura (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roller Skates (Hardcover)

I don't remember the first time I read this book or, rather, had it read to me. But I'm 24 now and I probably re-read it every 18 months or so. It's just that good.

Lucinda is one of the best characters in children's literature. She's not a beautiful girl (though you can tell she'll grow into a striking and riveting woman), but she's got an entirely generous spirit and energy saved up from a lifetime of restraint. She manages to have both entirely unique and exciting experiences that few people would (or should) ever share and to make everyday things into adventures. What's more, through the book she truly grows and changes, not any more than a girl of 10 years old should, but just enough.

Her adventures bring to life 1890s New York, both familiar as the city we know now and completely different in scale. One amazing thing, if you think about it, is that this book is set just about 15 or 20 years after the first of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books, so perhaps Laura was a young married woman during Lucinda's orphan year. And yet think of the difference in the lives they lived! You wouldn't think it was the same country, even.

It's true that there are some difficult parts in this book. Lucinda does lose friends, one of them violently. But, speaking as someone with a clear memory of being read this book as a child, it's handled so as not to be traumatizing. Lucinda doesn't fully understand or absorb her friend's murder; neither did I, because it's so sensitively written that as a child you realize only that something awful has happened that you _shouldn't_ quite understand. If you tend to underestimate your children, if you want to "protect" them from being thinking people able to live fully in the world, you may want to protect them from this book. My parents thought more of me, and I'm glad of it. Lucinda has been a great friend to me.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars oooooooh... a book of image and thought and clarity, May 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Roller Skates (Newbery Library, Puffin) (Paperback)

I have loved this book ever since I first read it 15 years ago. I still read it every few months; its episodic nature makes it ideal for picking up and skimming when you have a few spare moments. The characterisations are fabulous; Lucinda's adventures still make me smile; I cannot say things wonderful enough about _Roller Skates_. It is an almost perfect book: thoughtful and whimsical by turns, and beautiful in its detail. Read it!