Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates. Mary Mapes Dodge

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.