Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Der reiche kleine arme Junge
Für wen es gedacht ist
Readers who love old New York, boys' adventure books, tales of kind strangers, and stories where reading and daydreaming carry a child through the days. Fans of Aladdin, Robinson Crusoe and King Arthur will feel at home here.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
The Rich Little Poor Boy is a novel by Eleanor Gates, set in the tenements of New York's Lower East Side in the years just after the Great War. It follows Johnnie Smith, a boy of ten by his own count, who wears a grown man's cast-off clothes and does a woman's housework for a brutal foster father, the longshoreman Tom Barber.
Shut in a dark flat with a feeble old Civil War veteran and a gentle stepsister named Cis, Johnnie escapes into his imagination. He telephones millionaires along the clothesline, orders feasts from an invisible waiter, and sends a wheelchair on trips to Niagara Falls. Then a secondhand copy of Aladdin arrives in a basket from the flat above, and his private world begins to meet the real one.
This summary walks you through the story up to its last pages. You will meet a cowboy with one eye, a scoutmaster, a priest with damaged lungs, and a neighbor who rocks when she walks. The first stop is the kitchen where it all begins.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A boy in clothes forty years too bigFree
- 2Daydreams make the kitchen a kingdom
- 3A basket brings a book from above
- 4Out into the city with a dollar
- 5One-Eye the cowboy and a hero's return
- 6A scoutmaster, a bath and a goal
- 7Cis grows up and the roses arrive
- 8Father Pat and the coming of friends
- 9What it all means and how it is told
- 10Choices that test a boy's courage
Punkt 1 von 10
A boy in clothes forty years too big
The book opens on Johnnie Smith, ten years old, dressed in a shirt and trousers cut down from the clothes of his foster father. His arms are thin, his hands are red and wrinkled from dishwater, and his bright yellow hair is the thing he hates most about himself. Boys taunt him about it, and women want to stroke it.
Big Tom Barber is a huge, hairy longshoreman with a crooked nose that seems to move on its own and a mouth that shows how pleased he is with himself. Every morning he leaves orders about dishes, beds, bead stringing and violet making. He stays dangerous because he cannot stand silence or back talk, and Johnnie has felt his boot and his strap more than once.
Johnnie has a quiet ally in Cis, his sixteen-year-old stepsister, who works in a pasteboard-box factory. When Barber starts to grab him, Johnnie coughs, and Cis rushes in to ask for shoe polish money. Talk of spending always turns Barber's anger aside. The two children have a whole language of coughs, taps, whistles and glances to get past him.
The flat also holds Grandpa, Barber's old father, who lives in a wheelchair and mistakes everyone for the people of the war years. Barber is gentle with him, and that soft spot is the only one the man has. Down the stairs and up the stairs, the whole building listens to what goes on behind that door.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Der reiche kleine arme Junge
What is The Rich Little Poor Boy about?
It follows Johnnie Smith, a boy kept at housework in a New York tenement by a cruel foster father. His imagination, a basket of books and new friends like a cowboy, a scoutmaster and a priest help him find courage and hope.
Who is One-Eye in The Rich Little Poor Boy?
One-Eye is a tall, shy cowboy with one green eye and fur trousers who works with horses in a big hall. He feeds Johnnie, brings him home and keeps returning with fruit, books and kindness.
What does the title The Rich Little Poor Boy mean?
It comes from Father Pat, who sees that Johnnie has little money but a great deal of imagination, courage, kindness and love of learning. The priest calls him rich for those gifts, and a long letter explains it.
Is The Rich Little Poor Boy a true story?
No, it is a novel by Eleanor Gates, set in tenement New York just after the Great War. The Boy Scouts, the Carnegie Hero Fund and the story of Edith Cavell come from real history.
Is The Rich Little Poor Boy easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that the story moves through short chapters with plenty of dialogue, humor and lively characters. Johnnie's daydreams, the strong dialects and the warm voice of the narrator make it easy to follow aloud.