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Girls' Adventure Series
Nan of the Gypsies
A “Coming of Age” YA book about Gypsies in America.
Nan is an orphan child travelling with a gypsy caravan in California. She is adopted and educated by a wealthy woman who loves her as if she were her own child. Her benefactress loses her fortune, but Nan does her part to help the household survive economically. When her long lost uncle arrives from Romania, Nan learns that her father was a famous Gypsy musician and her mother came from a wealthy and important Romanian family. When her mother and father died unexpectedly when she was a baby, she was given to her father’s sister to be raised among the Gypsies. Difficulties among the Gypsy clan forced her to leave the caravan, and thus she was adopted and raised by the wealthy woman. In the end, a neighbour boy who has loved Nan for years, proposes and they get married. They go on a Gypsy honeymoon in a ‘roulotte.’ (round-topped wooden caravan pulled by horse).
What happens next you ask? Well, you’ll just have to download and read this FREE book to find out for yourself.
Some interesting parts of this story are that this book was written in 1926, and it takes place in southern California. The band of Gypsies were in fact, trying to go over the border into Mexico.
Nan is an orphan child travelling with a gypsy caravan in California. She is adopted and educated by a wealthy woman who loves her as if she were her own child. Her benefactress loses her fortune, but Nan does her part to help the household survive economically. When her long lost uncle arrives from Romania, Nan learns that her father was a famous Gypsy musician and her mother came from a wealthy and important Romanian family. When her mother and father died unexpectedly when she was a baby, she was given to her father’s sister to be raised among the Gypsies. Difficulties among the Gypsy clan forced her to leave the caravan, and thus she was adopted and raised by the wealthy woman. In the end, a neighbour boy who has loved Nan for years, proposes and they get married. They go on a Gypsy honeymoon in a ‘roulotte.’ (round-topped wooden caravan pulled by horse).
What happens next you ask? Well, you’ll just have to download and read this FREE book to find out for yourself.
Some interesting parts of this story are that this book was written in 1926, and it takes place in southern California. The band of Gypsies were in fact, trying to go over the border into Mexico.
110 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 1926
12 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Grace May North
56 books5 followersGrace May North-Monfort was born in Utica, New York, and between 1919 and 1931 wrote a number of books under her own name as well as her personal pseudonym, "Carol Norton." In addition to writing three volumes in the X Bar X Boys series for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, she also wrote a short series of western stories for young children, called the "Southwest Stories for Children," unpublished at the time of her death in San Luis Obispo, California.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 18, 2013
Read as a child, it is about Nan, a gypsy girl, and her coming-of-age story. A delightful story that ends happily for Nan.
August 17, 2017
4,5 stars. Free e-book copy from amazon. Review could contain spoilers.
Nan a Gipyse girl lives in a group of gypsies. The group is let by a horrible man Anselo Spico. When Nan has got the chance to flee the group she does. She ends up with two lovely old ladies. One falls in love with Nan at once but the other lady needs some time. They own different estades ect. Nan meets a boy who resently lost his father. They become friends but his mother does not approve. Nan goes to boardingschool, the boy aswell. At the end of their school years a lot happens in both lives and eventually the story turns. But in what way?
I realy did like to read this book. It took two days to complete reading it. I enjoyed it a lot. Nan become a favorite character of mine. She is a wild and free spirit in a time that was not common. The discribtions of the live Nan lives and the people she meets are well written. It took my by surprice. I do normaly like more adventure and suspence in a novel. Surely to recommend.
a few lines from the novel:
-"There now." Nan's given you a chance to get away from the snake. That's what Anselo Spirco is, a rattle snake, and I'm trying to get away."-
-..., and Nan knew nothing really of the heaven of the gorigo.-
- "I'll stay until the gold flowers fade out there in the garden."-
- "I am going to engage masters to come and teach you piano, singing and the harp or violin as you prefer."-
-"I'm never going to be well again. The doctors does not know what is the matter with me;"-
="We landed in the night on a lonely marshy shore. Florida they called it. The sailing barge that brought us across the sea left before day-break, and when the sun came up we ere in our caravans riding across a flat lonely country."-
Nan a Gipyse girl lives in a group of gypsies. The group is let by a horrible man Anselo Spico. When Nan has got the chance to flee the group she does. She ends up with two lovely old ladies. One falls in love with Nan at once but the other lady needs some time. They own different estades ect. Nan meets a boy who resently lost his father. They become friends but his mother does not approve. Nan goes to boardingschool, the boy aswell. At the end of their school years a lot happens in both lives and eventually the story turns. But in what way?
I realy did like to read this book. It took two days to complete reading it. I enjoyed it a lot. Nan become a favorite character of mine. She is a wild and free spirit in a time that was not common. The discribtions of the live Nan lives and the people she meets are well written. It took my by surprice. I do normaly like more adventure and suspence in a novel. Surely to recommend.
a few lines from the novel:
-"There now." Nan's given you a chance to get away from the snake. That's what Anselo Spirco is, a rattle snake, and I'm trying to get away."-
-..., and Nan knew nothing really of the heaven of the gorigo.-
- "I'll stay until the gold flowers fade out there in the garden."-
- "I am going to engage masters to come and teach you piano, singing and the harp or violin as you prefer."-
-"I'm never going to be well again. The doctors does not know what is the matter with me;"-
="We landed in the night on a lonely marshy shore. Florida they called it. The sailing barge that brought us across the sea left before day-break, and when the sun came up we ere in our caravans riding across a flat lonely country."-
July 16, 2014
Only four stars for this one because it really could have been much worse....
January 5, 2022
Loved the book!
April 23, 2017
" I wonder how we dare go along life's trail when it is, so often, as though we are blind-folded."
This book was a find at a yard sale for $1.00. I was so excited because it was copyrighted in 1926 and was in good condition. The story peaked my interest because I was excited to read what was written in a time when there was barely vehicles, phones, electricity, indoor plumbing and such. It did not disappoint. Story level is Middle School-ish, but still had good characters with good character.
This book was a find at a yard sale for $1.00. I was so excited because it was copyrighted in 1926 and was in good condition. The story peaked my interest because I was excited to read what was written in a time when there was barely vehicles, phones, electricity, indoor plumbing and such. It did not disappoint. Story level is Middle School-ish, but still had good characters with good character.
April 4, 2015
I found this book in an antiques mall, its pages browned and brittle. I tried my best to be gentle with it as I read but, a few corners broke off anyway. It is a product of its time, old-fashioned to those in ours. The coming of age and adventures of Nan the gypsy girl as she finds her way in the world. I enjoyed this book, its time period and Nan.
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August 17, 2011This was a book that my grandmother read in her early teens. She was given the book by her parents in 1945. She passed it to my mom who gave it to me. I thought it was an enjoyable, nice read.
June 11, 2019
First published in 1926, so some dated ideas for sure - but oh it was a romantic exciting book for me. Another one I read over and over.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews