Rating: 
Summary: WHO WILL WIN THE GREAT RACE?
Review: 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?
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.
Rating: 
Summary: Canals as Connections
Review: 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.
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