Otto of the Silver Hand

Otto of the Silver Hand

Author/Illustrator: Howard Pyle

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade: 4^th grade and up

The book takes place during the medieval ages. It is about a boy named Otto whose mother passed away while he was a small boy and his father abandoned him to the monastery to live with the monks. When Otto got older, he learned that his father was Baron Conrad, who was known for the rivalry with Trutz-Drachen and the death of Baron Fredrick. Baron Conrad takes his men to fight and it leads to the lack of security in Otto’s home. Baron Henry, which is the nephew of baron Fredrick, took this opportunity to attack the castle and took Otto as hostage. He cut off Otto’s hand but he spared his life. When Baron tried to rescue his son, it ended in both Baron Henry and Conrad’s death. Otto ended up being a statesman and marrying Pauline, who was the daughter of Baron Henry. He put a silver hand as the replacement for the hand that was chopped off, which comes the name Otto of the Silver Hand.

This is a great book because despite of all the revenge, hatred, and violence, it also gives the lesson on love, sacrifice, and forgiveness. This is a great book because it is set in the medieval time and the theme is really nice. Otto’s characteristic and personality shows a great example to the reader or the students to do good and also have a positive perspective in life. I will highly recommend this for upper grade level students because it is a novel and it is somewhat long. Students who like quest and adventure journey will like this. The illustration in this book is black and white. It is mainly drawn in ink and are sketches. It consist of a lot of lines and light and dark shades.