Copper-Toed Boots

Book excerpt: Marguerite de Angeli was born in Lapeer, Michigan, in 1889. As a child, she loved to hear her father tell the story of the red leather-topped copper-toed boots he prized when he was a boy. Recreating the mischievous adventures of that boy through a Michigan summer, Copper-Toed Boots escapes to a time of "tradin" with schoolmates, "tradin" at the store, and picnicking during blackberry season. Children of all ages will delight in this realistic portratyal of mid-nineteenth century rural life. From classroom antics to the day the circus comes to town, Marguerite de Angeli vivdly depicts the folk happenings of a little American town.