Books with author Mary M. Dodge

Hans Brinker is a classic children's story set in the Netherlands, following the titular character as he aspires to compete in ice skating races and help his family. At the start, we discover that our young hero is responsible for his entire family's welfare, after his father was injured in an accident. Rather than be downcast by his father's poor condition, Hans is emboldened and determined to turn the family's fortunes around by competing in ice skating races. The stakes become higher as a potential but expensive cure for Hans' stricken father is revealed by the family's doctor. Today, this tale of youthful gallantry remains well-known and celebrated in the Netherlands. Its accurate details of traditional Dutch life enthralled curious readers and introduced them to a country hitherto little-known in children's literature. Virtues held highly in the Dutch culture; of both cooperation and competition, are well expressed in the hero's character and - as the story progresses - his family members. In recent years, the story of Hans Brinker has enjoyed renewed prominence from the 1960s onward as TV, film and radio adaptations were created. The author Mary Mapes Dodge, who originated from New York City, would enjoy celebrity in the Netherlands and visited the country multiple times.

First published in 1865, "Hans Brinker" is a beautiful children's story about a hard-working, honorable Dutch boy who faces serious challenges in his family's poverty. While he greatly desires to enter a big ice-skating race with his sister Gretel, Hans is much more concerned about his father, a man injured from a fall off of a dike and in need of surgery. When Hans learns of a very brusque, expensive doctor who may be able to treat his father, he offers his money, saved for race skates, to the doctor for the surgery. The outcome has thrilled and surprised readers for well over one hundred years. Mary Mapes Dodge has woven a heart-warming tale with a wealth of authentic detail on Dutch life in the early nineteenth century, providing readers with a charming tale of youthful honor that has stood the test of time.

First published in 1865, "Hans Brinker" is a beautiful children's story about a hard-working, honorable Dutch boy who faces serious challenges in his family's poverty. While he greatly desires to enter a big ice-skating race with his sister Gretel, Hans is much more concerned about his father, a man injured from a fall off of a dike and in need of surgery. When Hans learns of a very brusque, expensive doctor who may be able to treat his father, he offers his money, saved for race skates, to the doctor for the surgery. The outcome has thrilled and surprised readers for well over one hundred years. Mary Mapes Dodge has woven a heart-warming tale with a wealth of authentic detail on Dutch life in the early nineteenth century, providing readers with a charming tale of youthful honor that has stood the test of time.

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. In another moment they were all laughing together, as hand in hand they flew along the canal, never thinking whether the ice would bear them or not, for in Holland ice is generally an all-winter affair. It settles itself upon the water in a determined kind of way, and so far from growing thin and uncertain every time the sun is a little severe upon it, it gathers its forces day by day and flashes defiance to every beam.

Hans Brinker; or, the Silver Skates 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

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