I had a vague idea when I started this of attempting to read this when I was a child and not getting very far. This was borne out as I read, for I remembered the wooden skates and nothing else. So I made it to chapter one?

I do not blame my youthful self, because this book is so exactly what you think of when you imagine Victorian children's fiction. Poor but noble protagonists, family love, great hardship. What is this--a contest? Classmates both kind and cruel. MASSIVE serendipity strikes-twice! All is resolved in the best possible way, and the action was only mostly impeded by the massive doses of educational information...not completely impeded!

Mary Mapes Dodge was a widowed mother when she wrote this, and the most affecting scenes are the ones in which the wife is interacting with her husband. However, as much as I don't think any modern child would really care much for this, as an adult I enjoyed this atmospheric winter read. Highly recommend for anybody flying to the Netherlands as a travel read!