Roller Skates

Roller Skates is a book by Ruth Sawyer that won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1937. It is a fictionalized account of one year of Sawyer's life. A Newbery Medal Winner! Growing up in a well-to-do family with strict rules and routines can be tough for a ten-year-old girl who only wants to roller skate. But when Lucinda Wyman's parents go overseas on a trip to Italy and leave her behind in the care of Miss Peters and Miss Nettie in New York City, she suddenly gets all the freedom she wants! Lucinda zips around New York on her roller skates, meeting tons of new friends and having new adventures every day. But Lucinda has no idea what new experiences the city will show her.... Some of which will change her life forever. “A refreshingly lively and genuine story.”—The New York Times Lucinda's year in New York City began when her family went to Europe and left her-not, thank Heaven with Aunt Emily and her four docile, lady like daughters, but with Miss Peters, who understood that a girl of ten wanted to roller skate to school, and stop and chat with Patrolman M'Gonegal, and make friends with Mr. Gilligan, the cabby, and even play with Tony, whose father kept a fruit stand down the street. Roller Skates is a delightful story of old New York, about a tomboy who could not help being a lady at the same time, who was both quick tempered and sympathetic, both stubborn and astute.