Roller Skates (Newbery Library)

“I tell you I won’t go to Aunt Emily’s! I’ll run away if you send me there.”So says ten-year-old Lucinda to her parents as they are leaving on a yearlong trip to Italy. Lucinda wants to stay with Miss Peters and Miss Nettie, where she feels she will be free. For once, her parents do not let Aunt Emily interfere, and Lucinda’s exciting year begins.

In New York City in 1890, a little girl could strap on her roller skates and roam the city. Lucinda makes the most of her freedom and befriends the Irish cab driver, the patrolman in Bryant Park, the boy at the fruit stand, and the reporter who lives in her building. Lucinda’s irrepressible spirit endears her to everyone and her roller skates bring her to adventures on every corner of old New York.