#Hans brinker or the silver skates

[book--brackets]

Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by Rumer Godden

The Railway Children by E Nesbitt

Tom's Midnight Garden

Carry on Mr Bowditch

Hans Broker and the Silver Skates

Adam of the Road

Added!

[disneybooklist]

Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates (1962)

Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge (1865)

[adventurelandia]

The Story of Hans Brinker (Or the Silver Skates)

[secretcherimaybe]

Hans Brinker is actually a pretty enjoyable book

[faline-cat444]

Where are the Hans Brinker fans hiding?

I know I'm not one of them because of the confusion I suffered seeing this line in the first episode of Fionna and Cake:

Which had me sort of understand the question/answer slightly better when I was going through some more Trivial Pursuit questions earlier since this was on one of the cards...

But all I know is at least with the family and similar ties we personally don't know Mister Brinker.Is there like some lifestyle or location more familiar to his story than others?

[thebeautifulbook]

HANS BRINKER, OR THE SILVER SKATES by Mary Mapes Dodge [1896] (New York: Scribner’s 1917) Illustrated by Allen B. Doggett. Cover design by Margaret Armstrong.

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[lauragirl53]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: HANS BRINKER HARDCOVR1945 ILLUSTRATED JUNIOR LIBRARY EDITION MARY MAPES DODGE.

[quotesuniteposts]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates 1954, First Juniors Deluxe Edition Doubleday.

[juniperusashei]

Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge - 1/5

The strange association that came to mind is Wes Anderson’s animated film Isle of Dogs; which I didn’t have a problem with the content, but the structure was so lazy that it was impossible to overlook. Mary Mapes Dodge’s Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates starts out with a strong enough premise that shouldn’t have been that hard to follow through with: The eponymous Hans Brinker competing in an ice-skating race to win the title Silver Skates. Instead, like Isle of Dogs, most of the narrative follows a quirky ensemble cast that only tangentially relates to the main story. Towards the end of the book, Dodge does return to the race, but over 50% of this book is composed of “meanwhiles”.  Perhaps Dodge abandoned the “main” story because it was so sentimentalist and cloying she knew no one would sit through it, so she focused too much energy on the slapstick antics of four or five Dutch boys skating from city to city. And indeed, when she returned to Hans Brinker’s story, I was so annoyed I no longer cared. Hans Brinker represents the worst of Victorian-era moralistic childrens’ literature. The protagonists are so perfect, and their situation so miserable; they toil with such dignity that it almost seems to glamorize poverty. The ending is replete with fortuitous coincidences that wouldn’t make sense in any book; it started to feel like a parody of itself. It’s got the preachy tone of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but if the entire thing was about Tiny Tim.

Hans Brinker’s main claim to fame is originating the folk tale of the Dutch boy who saved his city from floodwaters by plugging a hole with his finger. In context, it’s a story that one character tells another. The most interesting part of this book was how the Netherlands were presented; I almost want to use the word worldbuilding. Mary Mapes Dodge was American, and wrote for American audiences; a common point of discussion in my book club was how Hans Brinker actually treats Dutch culture with an Orientalist lens. A couple people in the book club are actually Dutch, and said that reading this gave them “a new perspective on Orientalism”. Her portrayal of the Netherlands is quaint and backwards, while simultaneously utopic. There are so many bizarre details that serve to otherize Dutch culture, and it’s an interesting snapshot of what happens when white people exoticize other white people.

[mysterious-secret-garden]

Hans Brinker or The silver skates. A story of life in Holland by Mary Mapes Dodge. Published 1876 by Scribner, Armstrong and Co.in New York . Illustrated by Jules Théophile Schuler. >> Source

[jingle-bones]

Movie number 30: Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates (Norman Foster, 1962). Originally shown in January 1962 in two parts on the television anthology series Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, Hans Brinker was released to cinemas internationally in 1964. An adaptation of the popular children’s novel by Mary Mapes Dodge, the movie stars Rony Zeaner as the titular Hans, a struggling Dutch artist who enters a skating contest in hope of winning the prize money to pay for an operation for his father who is injured while attempting to repair local sea defences.

Despite its TV origins Hans Brinker is, like virtually all Disney releases of its era, a high quality product. While it’s narrative is divided neatly in two halves and the fades for commercial breaks are noticeable I can imagine watching this on original release, probably as the second half of a double bill, unaware of its made for TV status due to its high production values. Shot on location on the Zuider Zee and in Rembrandt’s Amsterdam home and featuring a largely Dutch cast and crew it is markedly different in tone from Disney’s American product. It is a slow moving drama punctuated by the excitement of the storm battled dam rescue, a kidnapping and the inevitable skating contest. Davy Crockett’s Norman Foster directs in a low-key yet professional manner as befits the story.

While I found much to enjoy in this movie I will admit it is probably something of an acquired taste and possibly of interest more to Disney historians than casual viewers. However, if you are in the mood for low-key family drama cum Netherlands travelogue you could do much worse than seek out Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates.

[now-winter-comes-slowly]

Ger Apeldoorn’s blog features a beautiful selection of Bert Bus’s illustrations for Hans Brinker’s classic, The Silver Skates. 

[cdchyld]

Just added to the Vintage shop - Set of 8 Children’s books, all published by Whitman Publishing Company, 1940s 1950s 1960s

[secretcherimaybe]

Listen to Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge on Audible. https://www.audible.com/pd/B002VA37HK?source_code=ASSOR150021921000R

[frog-on-rock]

Some of my favourite children books that I wish more people knew about:

Nobody's boy, by Hector Malot - It's a French novel about a boy who discovers that his mother is not his real mother and his journey to find his real parents. This book is a heartwarming tale, and it taught me a lot about the value of friendship and about the lives of people back in the 19th century.

Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates, by Mary Mapes Dodge - It's an American book about the lives of two poor Dutch children in the 19th century. This novel, as well as the first one I mentioned, helped me realise how privileged I was for living in 21st century in my country, and also how many things I take for granted, that I really shouldn't. What I really love about this book is that although it was written long time ago, the issues it mentions are still relevant and understandable. Also through my childhood I wished for a big brother like Hans (and for some reason I always pictured him as Peter from Narnia movies XD).

Here, Buster by Archie Binns - It's a story about a boy who adopts an orphaned baby seal - and it's exactly as it sounds - an adorable book. Clint's (the main hero) relationship with Buster (the seal) is amazing, and also this book made me interested marine biology, something that I hope to learn more about in the future.

What are your favourite children books?

[thebeautifulbook]

HANS BRINKER, OR THE SILVER SKATES by Mary Mapes Dodge (Philadelphia: McKay, 1918). Illustrated by Maginel Wright Enright.

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