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A review by naturalistnatalie
Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle
4.0
This was an excellent read aloud. The sentences just rolled off the tongue and the chapters weren't too long. I was surprised how easy it was to read, considering it was written in the 1800s. I've noticed authors from that long ago tend toward very long, convoluted sentences. That was not the case here. Instead, the sentences were short and action-packed. It was in the dialogue that I could feel the age of the book. The dialogue tended toward the formal and the "canst thou"s.
The story moved along nicely without much excess. The one confusing part was when Baron Henry cut off Otto's hand. It was alluded to so vaguely I didn't even realize anything happened to him until he was sick recovering. Then, it was chapters later until we learned his hand was cut off. I thought for a while he was castrated and that was why the author was so vague in his descriptions. I should have remembered the title of the book. The kids didn't find it as interesting as I did, but you can't with them all. The book was quite descriptive of how people not at court lived in the Middle Ages. So often historical fiction focuses on the Kings and Queens and those around them. Here, we get a robber baron in the depths of Germany.
The story moved along nicely without much excess. The one confusing part was when Baron Henry cut off Otto's hand. It was alluded to so vaguely I didn't even realize anything happened to him until he was sick recovering. Then, it was chapters later until we learned his hand was cut off. I thought for a while he was castrated and that was why the author was so vague in his descriptions. I should have remembered the title of the book. The kids didn't find it as interesting as I did, but you can't with them all. The book was quite descriptive of how people not at court lived in the Middle Ages. So often historical fiction focuses on the Kings and Queens and those around them. Here, we get a robber baron in the depths of Germany.