Skip to main content

Otto of the Silver Hand

Otto of the Silver Hand

Author/Illustrator: Howard Pyle
Genre: Historical Fiction
Grade: 4th 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.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rapunzel

Rapunzel Author: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Illustrator: Carol Heyer Genre: Traditional Literature Ages or Grade: 2 nd to 5 th grade Rapunzel is a story well-known story about a couple who are greedy that the witch took their child in exchange of their wrongdoings. It all started when the wife wanted some of the fruits from the backyard of their neighbors. She craved it so much and wanted it that his husband sneaked in and get some until the owner found out that he had been stealing. In exchange for him stealing, the witch wanted their child. She locked up Rapunzel in a high tower till a prince found out about the tower and Rapunzel. They both fell in love and the witch found out. The witch then cut off her hair and locked her up. He fell and blinded himself but years passed and they found each other again and live happily ever after. This is a long story for children to read aloud so I will probably start to read half of it in the morning and then read the en...

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night Author: Joyce Sidman Illustrator: Rick Allen Genre: Poetry Ages or Grade: 3 rd through 5 th grade This book consists of poems about animals especially night animals. It consists of a lot of sounding words and informative concrete detailed words. This poem book talks about each night creatures and tells a story of what they do at night. This is a good poem book to keep in my future classroom because each poem makes you imagine and see it vividly in your mind by the way the words are put together. This is also informative for students and will be helpful for classification or science class because it explains weather, animals, and classifications. Not only it is a poem book it is also informative and has a lot of fun facts for students to read on the side of every page.

The Three Little Pigs

The Three Little Pigs Author/Illustrator: James Marshall Genre: Traditional Literature Ages or Grade: Pre-K to 2 nd The Three Little Pigs is a fable that falls under the genre traditional literature. It is a story about these three little pigs who are sent out “to seek their fortune” (Marshall 2). The first pig bought straws to build a house; then once he built it, a hungry wolf blew his house and ate the first pig. The second pig then got sticks and built a house with it. The hungry wolf also blew his house and then ate the second pig. The third pig was the smartest for he built his house with bricks. The wolf tried and tried to allure him to get out of the house but the pig is smart and he overcomes the hungry wolf by having him boiled and cooked when the wolf entered the pig’s chimney.       The retold of this story is very clear and simple. The illustrations are not that great but it is acceptable enough for me to put it in the book center f...