Customer Reviews

Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was given this book when I was very young and it sat on my shelf for years before I became interested enough to read it. I wish I had picked it up sooner! But then perhaps I needed to mature more before I could appreciate it. I was utterly fascinated (I read this in my teens) and even the historical "textbook" portions captivated me. I love to learn history from fiction, and this did an excellent job - Dutch history and culture came alive. I have re-read it several times since, and no Disney move can do justice to the book. (Well, I don't believe any movie can really do justice to a book.) The characters are real and we easily empathize with them, the adventure is exciting and the climax of the race does not disappoint. It should be in every child's library.

With a book like this, many readers cheat themselves by assuming that they already know what it's about, because they heard the outline of the story before, and therefore they have no need to really read it. A lot like the way some people treat the Bible, or at least large parts of the Bible. Anyway, I recently re-read this book to one of my daughters, and can report that upon close consideration, this book is really a retrospective Calvinistic explanation for how old Dr. Boekman finds a successor for his surgical practice, following Dr. Boekman's disappointment in his only son, who never liked medicine and who in fact found a reason to run away from Holland to resettle in England to pursue a business career. The rich descriptions of Dutch history and culture form the context for this drama.

Consequently, Dr. Boekman's whole outlook on life, exemplified by his perpetual frown, descends into depression as he humorlessly goes about his surgical practice, all the while increasing his fame which radiates from Amsterdam far out into the provinces, symbolized by the transportation and communication pathway of the frozen canals, over which all ages and classes of people happily skate through what used to be extremely cold winter months in Holland. These canals have not frozen solid on a regular basis for many decades.

These frozen canals in turn exemplify Dr. Boekman's frozen heart, which ultimately gets melted as a result of the importuning of Raff Brinker's son, young Hans, who cajoles old Dr. Boekman into taking a look at old Raff, who has been an invalid since suffering a closed head trauma while working out on the dikes during a fierce storm.

Dr. Boekman ends up surgically unblocking the "brainfreeze" suffered by Raff Brinker, who comes back to life "talking like an Amsterdam lawyer" which is a complete turn around from his invalid state where he appeared to be a distant, angry, barely controllable hulk crouching in his house by the fire, and casting a gloom of social obloquy which tainted not only his children, but his very cottage, in the eyes of most of the other respectable members of Dutch society, as they skated by on their local frozen canal.

By the end of the book, the connection achieved by Hans Brinker between his remote father and the remote surgeon seems to have spread, or networked, and young Hans is a rising surgeon practicing with Dr. Boekman, and happily married, while Dr. Boekman's biological son returns, or is redeemed back from England to practice a bustling business trade also in Amsterdam. The silver skates and the races on the canals are mainly a way for Hans to prove something to himself, that he can set his mind to what he wishes to achieve, and against all odds achieve it. The fact that all of this works to bring reconciliation and happiness back into people who are disconnected and frozen, rather than constituting a sappy, Dickensian series of unlikely coincidences, instead creates more of an echo of predestination than merely a "happy ending."

But then again, this is only one explanation of what we have here in this classic book.

How would you feel if you lived in a very poor family? Or your Father was hurt and couldn't work? This is the situation for Hans and Gretel Brinker in Mary Mapes Dodge's, Hans Brinker. Hans is a sixteen year old boy and Gretel is his eleven year old sister. They live with their Mother and Father in Holland, in the 1840's. When Hans was only six, his Father got badly hurt on the head and it effects his mind ever after. One day on his way to the marketplace, Hans sees the most famous doctor in Holland! Hans tells the doctor his Father is sick and needs his help. The doctor promises to visit. Will he make Hans's Father well again? You'll have to read Hans Brinker to find out! This book is fabulous! You won't be able to put it down! It's so exciting!

This classic of American Children's Literature was written in 1865 by a woman who had great respect for Holland, but had never been there herself. Based on meticulous research this book became popular in Europe as well as in America. Mary Maples Dodge, founder of "St. Nicholas Magazine" for children, extolled the patriotism, courage and cultural achievements of its people. Tuplips, windmills, dykes and canals are all here in her idyllic re-creation of 19th century Holland.

The story itself is interesting: a poor family struggles to survive financially in the ten years since the father fell off a dyke and lost his mind. The boy, 15, and the girl, 12, forego school to help the mother keep them together, despite the callous attitude of many villagers, who refer to "the idiot's cottage," call Hans "the rag picker" and Gretel "the goose girl." But strong family values prevail as the mother never loses faith in her husband's recovery. Fortunately there are several juvenile souls who exhibit Christian charity and peer support.

Then there are the mysteries; the mising 1000 Guilders (which would have improved their lifestyle during that grim decade), whose location is locked in the man's frozen mind; and the unknown watch which he bade his wife keep safe just before the tragedy. Unfortunately this heart-warming tale, which culminates in the great skating race, becomes bogged down in many chapters which do nothing to enhance the plot. The author seems determined to share all her research with her unsuspecting readers, resulting in a book that is half ficiton, half travelogue. Children want action and saucy dialogue, not lectures on Dutch history and culture, or long descriptions of museums. It is unrealistic for teenage boys to expound on military heroes and famous artists while they are enjoying their holiday on ice, even to show off for a foreign visitor.

I suspect that many children during the past 150 years have given up on this otherwise-delightful book, because over a dozen chapters seem more like an encyclopedia. Who cares about Holland's struggles with foreign nations in previous centuries, when we are worrried about what new tragedy is happening in the Brinker cottage? Happily there now exists an abridged version (only 256 pages instead of my 319) which may make this charming tale more palatable to modern readers. And the burning question remains: who will win those coveted silver skates?

When I was in grade school, I read a biography of Mary Mapes Dodge. which described her personal life while she was writing Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates.The book became the #1 item on my Christmas wish list and that wish was granted. I read the book numerous times during my lifetime and quite unexpectedly as a corporate wife, I had the quite lovely experience of living in the Netherlands in an extraordinary year when the canals froze and when they had actual ice skate racing and kettle sweeping on the canals. I felt I was living in the story which I had read so many times. I hope today's children read it with all the excitement I did and then get the wonderful opportunity to speak the language and live with the wonderful people there.

I remembers Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates as one of my favorite childhood books and wanted to try it again. It was as delightful in my middle age as when I was seven years old. The forward about Mary Mapes Dodge, when she lived and how she came to write, was an added pleasure. The facts about Holland blended with the touching story of Hans and his family make it a nearly perfect read. My 70-something mother-in-law finished the book in a day and liked it as well. To read it is to feel like you are flying down the ice yourself.

Is this the greatest book ever? Maybe, maybe not. Shakespeare had some good ones. Either way, this merits the five stars I've given it. Delve into one of the greatest stories ever told, and learn all about Holland. By the time you're done, you'll want to go ice skating.

So strap on your wooden skates and squeek across the ice of Ole Holland. Who gets the silver skates? Who is the greatest hero? Is hidden fortune just under the peat moss?

Dat hangt er van af . . .

Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates is one of the best books I've ever read. It is one of the only books that has ever made me cry. This book uses some Dutch words. Next to the word there is sometimes a small 1 telling you at the bottom of the page is a definition. For example in one sentence it says: Lets go get some 1. Tiffen. At the bottom of the page it says something like: 1 Tiffen - lunch.

Hans Brinker and his sister Gretel have been living with their mother who has spent the last ten years caring for their father who got what you could kind of call amnesia while out on the dykes. He has no memory and has sometimes done awful things without realizing it.

Suddenly the Brinker's luck begins to change and they have happiness as well as some pain.

This book is enchanting! It is truly a classic book! Everything turns out perfectly! It is also very educational. After reading this book you will know so much about the history and geography of The Netherlands. A Must Read!

I liked this book but it is slow going. It has little plot at the beginning but get more "exciting" near the end. It has a lot of dutch words which are hard to understand.