Books with author By (author) Mary Mapes Dodge

A Dutch brother and sister work toward two goals--finding the doctor who can restore their father's memory and winning the competition for the silver skates. For more than a century Mary Mapes Dodge's delightful children's story has been read and reread, holding its place as a genuine American classic. "A charming domestic story, which is address, indeed, to young people, but which may be read with pleasure and profit by their elders....Mrs. Dodge's humor is delightful." -Atlantic Monthly "Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge...was in a very true and intimate sense a friend of many thousands of children. More than the grown person, the child is instinctively aware of real sympathy and friendliness; and it was because these were at the heart of everything that Mrs. Dodge wrote, and of all her work as an editor, that she was so beloved by her young readers. In all she did thoroughness was a notable element, and it was for this reason that, from her very first attempt, Mrs. Dodge had complete success. Thus, her most famous tale,' 'Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates,' was not only a charming story of child life, but a perfect and exact picture of Holland and its people. It is said that in writing 'Hans Brinker' Mrs. Dodge had every chapter read critically by two Dutch friends, and that before beginning the work she made an exhaustive study in libraries and literature of everything that could help her to make the picture correct. This book has been translated into many languages, and has been especially popular in Holland itself. It maintains its place with the child readers of today, despite the lapse of years." -New Outlook "Abounding in descriptions of life rarely touched by novelists, and animated by an excellent spirit." -Boston Evening Transcript "The authoress has shown in her former works for the young a very rare ability to meet their wants, but she has produced nothing better than this charming tale, alive with incident and action, adorned rather than freighted with useful facts, and moral without moralization." -The Nation "The characters are pictured with almost photographic distinctness and power." -New York Christian Inquirer "One of the best works of the kind the young folks were ever permitted to lay hands upon." -New York Evening Express "A very charming story." -New York Evening Post "A pleasant story, wrought out in all its details with the minuteness of a Dutch painting, of life in Holland in the olden time." -Harper's Monthly "There have been few pleasanter books than Mrs. Dodge's." -Philadelphia Evening Gazette "Deserves a place on the library shelves and in the hearts of the children of the present day." -New York Evening Post

From glistening ice roads to frozen canals, in a wonderland where even the richest nobles thrill to the gliding joys of winter, everyone is awaiting the fabulous race to win the magnificent Silver Skates --Except Hans Brinker and his sister Gretel. For the Brinkers are desperately poor, friendless; with a father felled by a crippling head wound, Mother and the children must battle simply to survive. And while Hans and Gretel are strong, fast, disciplined, and loyal...on hand-crafted wooden skates, they can't complete against trained rich kids with fine steel blades...But sometimes...sometimes...good people are given a chance. Sometimes strangers do care. And sometimes a family's love and loyalty can struggle against even the cruelest twists of fate...Sometimes...

First published in 1865, Mary Mapes Dodge’s “Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates” is an endearing children’s story about a hard-working, honorable Dutch boy and the challenges he faces as a result of his family’s poverty. Hans dreams of entering a big ice-skating race with his sister Gretel so that he may win the beautiful silver skates he desires. Yet, he is also very concerned for his father, who has been injured from a fall off of a dike and in need of surgery. When Hans learns of an expensive doctor who may be able to treat his father, he offers his money, saved for the race skates he would need to win the competition, to the doctor for the surgery. This heartwarming tale with its surprising ending was an instant commercial success and has remained in print ever since its publication. Dodge’s story, full of authentic detail of Dutch life in the early nineteenth century, has provided readers with a charming tale of youthful honor that has stood the test of time.

The prize for winning the canal race is a pair of silver skates, but how can Hans or his sister, Gretel, hope to win skating with their handmade wooden skates? Since falling from a dike and hitting his head Hans' father has been unable to work, forcing Hans, Gretel, and their mother to find ways to pay the bills. With barely enough to go around there isn't much left over for fancy skates, but when Hans saves up enough for his own pair and a chance to race he decides that there is something even more important.Continuously in print since it was published in 1865 this edition of Hans Brinker features 65 illustrations and the complete unabridged text of this lovely story.

Mary Mapes Dodge (1831-1905) was an American children's writer and editor best known for her novel Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates (1865). She took up writing and editing in 1859 having been left a widow with two young children, initially working with her father on two magazines. Following the success of a collection of stories a novel was solicited, resulting in Hans Brinker which was an instant bestseller. Later in life she was an associate editor of Hearth and Home, edited by Harriet Beecher Stowe, then became an editor in her own right with St Nicholas Magazine, one of the most successful children's magazines of the second half of the 19th century. This novel was first published in 1883.

Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates (full title: Hans Brinker; or, the Silver Skates: A Story of Life in Holland) is a novel by American author Mary Mapes Dodge, first published in 1865. The novel takes place in the Netherlands and is a colorful fictional portrait of early 19th-century Dutch life, as well as a tale of youthful honor.The book's title refers to the beautiful silver skates to be awarded to the winner of the ice-skating race Hans Brinker hopes to enter. The novel introduced the sport of Dutch speed skating to Americans, and in U.S. media Hans Brinker is still considered the prototypical speed skater.The book is also notable for popularizing the story of the little Dutch boy who plugs a dike with his finger.

On a bright December morning long ago, two thinly clad children were kneeling upon the bank of a frozen canal in Holland. The sun had not yet appeared, but the gray sky was parted near the horizon, and its edges shone crimson with the coming day. Most of the good Hollanders were enjoying a placid morning nap. Even Mynheer von Stoppelnoze, that worthy old Dutchman, was still slumbering “in beautiful repose”. Now and then some peasant woman, poising a well-filled basket upon her head, came skimming over the glassy surface of the canal; or a lusty boy, skating to his day’s work in the town, cast a good-natured grimace toward the shivering pair as he flew along. Meanwhile, with many a vigorous puff and pull, the brother and sister, for such they were, seemed to be fastening something to their feet—not skates, certainly, but clumsy pieces of wood narrowed and smoothed at their lower edge, and pierced with holes, through which were threaded strings of rawhide. These queer-looking affairs had been made by the boy Hans. His mother was a poor peasant woman, too poor even to think of such a thing as buying skates for her little ones. Rough as these were, they had afforded the children many a happy hour upon the ice. And now, as with cold, red fingers our young Hollanders tugged at the strings—their solemn faces bending closely over their knees—no vision of impossible iron runners came to dull the satisfaction glowing within. In a moment the boy arose and, with a pompous swing of the arms and a careless “Come on, Gretel,” glided easily across the canal. “Ah, Hans,” called his sister plaintively, “this foot is not well yet. The strings hurt me on last market day, and now I cannot bear them tied in the same place.” “Tie them higher up, then,” answered Hans, as without looking at her he performed a wonderful cat’s cradle step on the ice. “How can I? The string is too short.” Giving vent to a good-natured Dutch whistle, the English of which was that girls were troublesome creatures, he steered toward her. “You are foolish to wear such shoes, Gretel, when you have a stout leather pair. Your klompen would be better than these.” “Why, Hans! Do you forget? The father threw my beautiful new shoes in the fire. Before I knew what he had done, they were all curled up in the midst o the burning peat. I can skate with these, but not with my wooden ones. Be careful now—” Hans had taken a string from his pocket. Humming a tune as he knelt beside her, he proceeded to fasten Gretel’s skate with all the force of his strong young arm. “Oh! oh!” she cried in real pain. With an impatient jerk Hans unwound the string. He would have cast it on the ground in true big-brother style, had he not just then spied a tear trickling down his sister’s cheek. “I’ll fix it—never fear,” he said with sudden tenderness, “but we must be quick. The mother will need us soon.” Then he glanced inquiringly about him, first at the ground, next at some bare willow branches above his head, and finally at the sky, now gorgeous with streaks of blue, crimson, and gold. Finding nothing in any of these localities to meet his need, his eye suddenly brightened as, with the air of a fellow who knew what he was about, he took off his cap and, removing the tattered lining, adjusted it in a smooth pad over the top of Gretel’s worn-out shoe. “Now,” he cried triumphantly, at the same time arranging the strings as briskly as his benumbed fingers would allow, “can you bear some pulling?” Gretel drew up her lips as if to say, “Hurt away,” but made no further response.