Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates
Recommended. Age: 10+. A Catholic review of this book for parents.
Our review
Hans and his sister Gretel are poor children in Holland who love to skate. Their father was hurt long ago and cannot work. Hans gives up his own skate money to get a doctor for his father. The family prays and helps each other, and there is a big race at the end. It is good for kids about eight and up. This is a warm, old-fashioned family story about a son who puts his father before his own dream. The Brinkers pray often and thank God aloud. Catholic educators place it in the middle grades. It also holds the well-known tale of the boy who saved Holland with his finger in the dike. Long chapters of Dutch history and sightseeing slow it down, so some children will need help to stay with it.
For parents
Read aloud from about eight. Independent reading from ten or eleven. Plugged In says ages 8 to 12. The travel chapters in the middle are slow, and a parent may choose to skim them. Ask: what does Hans give up, and why? Who is kind to the Brinkers when they are poor, and who looks down on them? How does the family act during ten hard years? Point out how often they pray and say 'God is good', in bad times as well as good. Saint Nicholas appears in a Dutch feast-day scene and in a legend where he raises three murdered boys. Tell your child he was a real bishop and saint, and that the pickled-boys story is a legend that may frighten younger listeners. The book praises Holland's religious freedom. Holland in this period was mostly Protestant, and the faith shown is general Christian piety. Gretel thinks a stork brings luck. Say that we trust God's care and not luck. Note that the Dutch characters drink beer and wine and smoke pipes.