You see, the problem is that there are basically two threads running through Hans Brinker. First, there’s the story of the Brinker family, a family on the brink of financial ruin because the father was injured while working on the dykes a decade earlier and has been “an idiot” (used here in its old, clinical definition) since. The children, Hans and Gretel, are brave and loving children, but are treated somewhat as outcasts in the village because of their poverty. This part of the story is lovely, really–it’s all about village life and ice skating (lots and lots of skating!), and it involves several little mysteries. I won’t provide any spoilers here, but the mysteries are heart-warming, if a little too coincidental. (I don’t mind a deus ex machina here or there, myself.)
The second thread, and the one that almost drove me to distraction, is the one that involves a cadre of the village boys (teenagers, really, but all the “children” in this book are older–but seem much younger, thankfully–than we expect them to behave nowadays) who take “a long skating journey” of fifty miles from their village of Broek to The Hague. Joining these Dutch boys on their journey is a British cousin of one of the boys, so what follows is an opportunity for them to show off their country in grand style: they take Ben to every landmark and place of note between Broek and The Hague. We learn all about a variety of Dutch curiosities–artists, ice breaking equipment, famous churches, you-name-it. Have I mentioned that this is the part that frustrated me? 🙂 I love to travel and I’m as interested in other countries and cultures as I can be, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why, oh why, Mary Mapes Dodge had to break up her lovely little story with almost 200 (yes!) pages of travel commentary.
And then I read the preface. (There’s a very good reason why it’s called the PREface.)
This little work aims to combine the instructive features of a book of travels with the interest of a domestic tale.
Ah-ha! But wait! There’s more!
Should this simple narrative serve to give my young readers a just idea of Holland and its resources, or present true pictures of its inhabitants and their every-day life, or free them from certain current prejudices concerning that noble and enterprising people, the leading desire in writing it will have been satisfied.
Somehow, knowing that she meant for the story to be read that way made it a wee bit easier to take for me. Still, though, if it hadn’t been for my girls insisting that we keep on keeping on, I would’ve cast this story aside long about page 125. I do think that they have a sense of what life in Holland was like, and I was surprised every time I questioned them about something that I had just read–they could almost always answer my questions!
I’ve also learned that Mary Mapes Dodge was the first editor of St. Nicholas magazine, a fact that I find interesting after reading about E.B. White’s early experiences as a writer. As a child, White had some of his writing published in St. Nicholas, as did quite a few other well-known writers.
So am I recommending Hans Brinker? I don’t know. It takes a lot of perseverance, both for the reader and the listener. However, there are many, many worthwhile things about it, the least but most entertaining of which is that you will get to say the name Jacob Poot approximately 173 times, and your children will laugh great belly laughs about it the first 52 times. 🙂 (I mention this in kind-hearted jest, having stumbled upon this site that claims many inaccuracies in the naming of people and places in Hans Brinker. The site also mp-3 files of the correct pronunciations of the Dutch words, but alas, I cannot get it to work.)
(Doubleday, 1954; first published 1875)
Of course, I have to link back to this post in which I review The Greatest Skating Race by Louise Borden, a book also set in Holland, as well as this post at A Spirited Mind in which Catherine highlights a nice assortment of picture books set in Holland.
Have you ever set aside a long read-aloud? Do you have a certain rule that you go by (maybe reading so many pages before abandoning it)?
We’re listening to this one right now in the car. We’ll have to check out the movie when we are done, although my 7 yr old will probably be disgusted and not thrilled at the romance.
I haven’t ever put aside a long read-aloud but I usually pick the ones that I think will be more difficult for reading aloud for audiobooks. 🙂 I have stopped a couple because I decided they were too scary or dealt with topics that were too advanced for my boys. That’s rare also, but it’s happened a couple of times.
I’ve set aside one read aloud that I can think of right off – Swiss Family Robinson. While I adore the book and want to share it with my children, attempting it with six children who were them ages 9 and under just didn’t work. And I’m not willing to read one of the ‘dumbed down’ children’s versions that take out all references to God and all the interesting parts. We’ll try again with that one in a few years I think, when more of my little boys are middle size. I know it’s one that they’ll love around age 8 or so.
So I must confess to having no idea there were full length novel style books about Hans Brinker! We’ve only read a picture book version.
We set aside Mara, Daughter of the Nile last year. We just couldn’t get through it and I don’t quite know why!
I’ve read Hans Brinker.. And loved it. Had set it aside for ‘someday’ to read aloud.. Thanks for the reminder 🙂 and the links! I didn’t know there was a movie. My daughter read a good abridgment when she was about 8. That was one of one abridged books I have ever assigned! It was recommended by a trusted living book reader, though. I am goin to see which version we own.. Hopefully it is the illustrated one you reviewed!
For the other commenter.. I’ve read Swiss Family Robinson.. Loved it! But knew it would definitely be an audio book for the children or for them to read independently when older! So many animals and plants.. If we read it together, we would get sidetracked so many times over!
Thanks for the great review! Hope we can join in Read Aloud Thursday soon 🙂
Sounds like you felt about this one as I did with Peter Pan when we read it a year or two ago. : ) We persevered and I’m glad we did but, whew! (And we recently listened to it on audio in the car and all adored it, so I’m now really glad that we had read it aloud beforehand).
We gave up on Guliver’s Travels – long winded, out of date, satire does not go over well with teens, and pre-teens. Even so, we trudged through the first third of the book, until even I was growing restless, before giving up. We generally pass on any book, that we all find boring. After all, novels are first and foremost, a form of entertainment. If they don’t entertain, we don’t read them. But, sometimes, with a classic, we’ll read on through, just out of respect for its standing as a classic.
Wow, I haven’t attempted anything that difficult with my young sons yet. I think I’ve purposely picked books that were easy reads or ones that I was already familiar with. I’m sure as they get older, we’ll venture out into some classics that I know will take more effort from me, but right now I’m happy to stick with Hank The Cowdog and such. =)
I set aside “The Birchbark House” a book about a native American girl from the Ojibwe tribe. My daughter and I found this book very boring and I thought it was very poorly written, so we did set this one aside. It is hard for me to abandon a book but it is more important that my daughter is engaged in what we are reading, so I take my cues from her.
Love this link-up!
I’ve set aside Robin Hood, unabridged. Even after we were more than halfway through. The old locution was difficult for me to read aloud and we had to stop so often for explanations. In my homeschooling heart I know this is good comprehension practice but it wore on me. I borrowed an updated version from the library but it lost its flavor while reading it, as the kids liked the original better.
I’ll pick it up again!
My oldest listened to this a couple of years ago and really enjoyed the story. When my younger two kids cycle around to that book again I’ll have to remember to get in audio form.
Last year I tried to read ‘The Enchanted Castle’ by E. Nesbit to my daughter, but she lost interest quickly. I think she was just too young. We barely made it through the first chapter.