Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates

Rating:
Summary: a wonderful book
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: An American Masterpiece!
Review: I first read this book as a boy in the fourth grade more than forty years ago. I loved it then and I love it more even now. Skating on canals is always great fun! Frankly, it was a new book that got me thinking about this old classic. "Santa & Pete: A Novel of Christmas Present and Past" came out last year and it is a wonderful retelling of the Saint Nicholas story, which is also an important part of "Hans Brinker." And so Santa and Pete got me thinking about Hans and those silver skates. I don't want anyone to touch Mary Dodge's work but can't we find some way to get "new" writers to revive these great old stories.

Rating:
Summary: Not As Good As Ya May Think
Review: This story is one of the silliest and most unusual stories I have ever read. While countless other reviewers compare this book to the masterpiece 'Swiss Family Robinson', I think it stinks. It has a silly ice-centric story. Hans Brinker and his pompous little girlfriend are obsessed by the beginning ice skating so much, they are cery hungry for silver ice skates. (at the time of this book's release most skates were made of wood). But this book is horrible. It left a taste reminiscent of Brussels Sprouts in my mouth. Stay away.