ROLLER SKATES
illustrated by Valenti Angelo & by Ruth Sawyer
This might be sold as non-fiction as we are told it is autobiographical. But it is written as a story and would sell better that way, I think. One of the most delightful books of the year — a vivid, lovable story of one year in a small girl's life, when her parents' trip to Italy and her own "boarding out" with the freedom of the city on roller skates — gave her a chance to be a real person rather than a bandboxed child. Into that year she manages to crowd all sorts of interesting contacts with people she might never have known, and joys and sorrows come thick and fast. An interesting picture of New York 40 odd years ago.