White Boots by Noel Streatfeild
This is the second time I’m reading something by Noel Streatfeild. The story starts with Harriet Johnson who’s not feeling very well and does not look very well either. She’s nearly ten years old but she doesn’t have the energy and vivacity of normal ten-year-old kids.
The Johnson family consists of George and Olivia Johnson, Harriet’s parents, and Alec, Toby, and Edward are her brothers. Her parents own a shop that sells off vegetables, fruits and other stuff which their uncle, William Johnson sent them. Usually, what he sent them could not be sold off easily as they were bad, rotting or just things that people don’t want. He grew them in his own garden and always eats the good ones so the Johnson family is stuck with selling bad stock.
Now, since Harriet is feeling weak and looking fragile, her doctor, Dr. Phillipson suggested that she take up skating to improve her health and strengthen her legs. Alec will then get a job delivering newspapers so that there’ll be money to rent her skates and boots. Her brothers are really thoughtful.
At the skating rink, Harriet befriends another young girl, Lalla Moore who’s training to be the greatest skater in the world. Lalla’s parents died in a skating accident when she was very young. Her eccentric Aunt Claudia wished for her to be a star skater and made her practise as often as possible. The aunt is also always reminding everyone that Lalla is a special child and that she needs to concentrate fully on her skating and nothing else. Therefore, poor Lalla’s life is quite sad for a young child who shouldn’t have such a heavy burden on her shoulders.
The story is more focused on Lalla’s skating and not much on Harriet’s. When she first entered the skating rink, she could barely skate. But, we will know that she’s improving fast not only in her skating but in her health too. She’s become so good that Lalla’s personal skating trainer, Max, told her to take up some skating tests, which Lalla had taken earlier.
Lalla is quite a selfish little girl with too many grand ideas in her head. When she sees a photograph of Harriet in a newspaper and the article claiming her to have a great future in skating before her, she got upset and threatened poor Harriet. Of course, Lalla thinks that she should be the only good skater and Harriet will always be not as good as her.
White Boots is a nice story for children and adults alike. I thought the cover somewhat dull. Only a pair of legs in white boots doing a ‘left forward outside edge, most likely a crossover’, according to Noel Streatfeild’s nephew, William Streatfeild, who wrote a postscript at the end of the book. If it’s a book meant to attract children, they should make a cover that is more eye-catching.
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:59 am
Not exactly convinced on the story. Seems a little lackluster but I’ll go and check out a few pages first! Thanks for the review! Katie(Quote)
July 7th, 2007 at 4:56 am
Okay…good luck reading the book! =) Josette(Quote)
November 5th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
The story sounds a bit like the movie Ice Princess, where the come-from-nowhere underdog does better than the one everyone expects to be a star. My kids would probably enjoy this as they like anything to do with skating. I think they’d like the cover, actually, but in a world where kids books are frequently sparkle and glitz, it might get overlooked. LisaMM(Quote)
November 8th, 2007 at 7:44 am
I’ve heard of ‘Ice Princess’ but never watched it yet. Oh, it’s similar? Should be a nice movie with lots of incredible skating movements!
Yup, kids’ books nowadays are extremely eye-catching, with lots of colour and stuff. Josette(Quote)
December 20th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
This is one of my favourite books. I suppose Ice Princess may be based on this book, but the book has a richer plot, more vibrant characters and the ending is a wonderful surprise rather than being all too obvious. I’d recommend it to anyone, whether they like skating or not. I think its about working hard and finding out who you are and, more importantly, who you want to be. SophieJ(Quote)
December 30th, 2007 at 2:12 am
SophieJ: That’s a nice comment, Sophie. This book would be a good one for young kids. They could learn from Harriet and Lalla! (The good things though) Josette(Quote)
July 5th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I’m Korean. While I read this book, I don’t understand exactly what is the difference of skates and boots. Are they different? We call skate books in Korean. Is there anyone explain?
Thanks. Shin(Quote)
October 10th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
@Shin: Hi there, I’ve also always associated skating with skates. Boots are a type of thick shoes that one wears. So I can’t really answer why the title of this book is called White Boots. Josette(Quote)
November 10th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
hello, Josette,
It’s old english book and there’s some words I can’t find a dictionary. Even though I asked my friends who is austrailian, but she doesn’t know what’s meaning of mimsy-pimsy and giggerty-geggerty. Do you know? Could you tell me? Thanks. Shin(Quote)
November 11th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
@Shin: Hi Shin! I just did a search on Google for the word ‘mimsy’ and it means “miserable & flimsy”. I got it from here.
As for ‘giggerty-geggerty’, I’m sorry but I couldn’t find its definition! I doubt that it’s even a real word. Maybe Noel Streatfeild made it up to make reading fun.
Josette(Quote)