Scan barcode
A review by oopsie
Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge
2.0
This book tells us the story of Hans and Gretel, two singlings that live in Holland. They grew up in a poor house and with an ill father who suffers from a brain injury.
The siblings can only count on themselves and on the support of their mother to go on and to take care of their father.
The story begins when Hans and Gretel decide to take part in the town's skating competition to try and win the famous Silver Skates.
Even tough the book was supposed to develop around the sibling's story in reality a great part of it describes the adventures of another group of boys.
In fact, almost half of this novel tells us about the trip that some of the boys from Hans and Gretel's town decide to take part in. The boys are leaded by Peter, who soon becomes another important character of the story, and they go on a trip that will take them and us on a journey across Holland.
I think that this part of the novel was crearly written with the intention of getting the reading to know more about Holland's history and culture.
While I first enjoyed this description of the country it slowly began to bore me after some time and I couldn't wait to go back to the siblings story.
In fact, I think that the author spent too much time in describing Holland's history and the country's folklore.
This turned the story to be kind boring from me.
Another thing that I didn't like about this book is the fact that Holland and its people are depicted so perfectly and as if they could only do righteous and admirable things. They are never described or shown in a bad light and everyone who seems a little bit selfish is immediately depicted as bad by the author.
I also didn't like the fact that all of the female characters of the novel are characterized only by their beauty, their grace, their kindness and so on...
They are never described to have other abilities or capabilities besides the ones that a classic housewife to-be would have.
Another thing that I absolutely didn't appreciate was the fact that the figure of the wife is always expected to follow her husband's wishes, to respect him and to provide him of everything he may want or desire...
While I understand that this book was written in the 18th century I still can't get myself to support a novel that contributes to diffuse this kind of patriarchal behevior and morals to children.
In the end, though, I have to say that I think this is a children's book mainly written with the intention of getting young people to know more about Holland and its cultures.
While the novel does a good job at that I didn't like the fact that its morals where so old minded (even if considering the period when the book was written).
This was a good read which I enjoyed but I don't know if I would recommend it to anyone unless they would like to get to know about Holland or they are simply looking for a children's book.
The siblings can only count on themselves and on the support of their mother to go on and to take care of their father.
The story begins when Hans and Gretel decide to take part in the town's skating competition to try and win the famous Silver Skates.
Even tough the book was supposed to develop around the sibling's story in reality a great part of it describes the adventures of another group of boys.
In fact, almost half of this novel tells us about the trip that some of the boys from Hans and Gretel's town decide to take part in. The boys are leaded by Peter, who soon becomes another important character of the story, and they go on a trip that will take them and us on a journey across Holland.
I think that this part of the novel was crearly written with the intention of getting the reading to know more about Holland's history and culture.
While I first enjoyed this description of the country it slowly began to bore me after some time and I couldn't wait to go back to the siblings story.
In fact, I think that the author spent too much time in describing Holland's history and the country's folklore.
This turned the story to be kind boring from me.
Another thing that I didn't like about this book is the fact that Holland and its people are depicted so perfectly and as if they could only do righteous and admirable things. They are never described or shown in a bad light and everyone who seems a little bit selfish is immediately depicted as bad by the author.
I also didn't like the fact that all of the female characters of the novel are characterized only by their beauty, their grace, their kindness and so on...
They are never described to have other abilities or capabilities besides the ones that a classic housewife to-be would have.
Another thing that I absolutely didn't appreciate was the fact that the figure of the wife is always expected to follow her husband's wishes, to respect him and to provide him of everything he may want or desire...
While I understand that this book was written in the 18th century I still can't get myself to support a novel that contributes to diffuse this kind of patriarchal behevior and morals to children.
In the end, though, I have to say that I think this is a children's book mainly written with the intention of getting young people to know more about Holland and its cultures.
While the novel does a good job at that I didn't like the fact that its morals where so old minded (even if considering the period when the book was written).
This was a good read which I enjoyed but I don't know if I would recommend it to anyone unless they would like to get to know about Holland or they are simply looking for a children's book.