A Day On Skates is returning!

I'm thrilled to hear that Bethlehem Books is re-releasing Hilda Van Stockum's wonderful A Day on Skates later this year. We were too late to purchase one of their reprints before they went out of stock, so we found an older copy on eBay. The problem is that the pages are rather brittle - not particularly friendly for a very lovable picture book!

Here's one of my favorite little samplings from the book - I think it gives a nice sense of the flavor and style...

Every Dutch boy and girl loves to skate, and every Dutch man and woman, too. And no wonder. Holland with its canals and streams has many miles of ice when the cold at last arrives. Both Evert and Afke had learned to skate when they were very small. Indeed, Afke had been only three when she first tottered on pigmy skates, carefully held up by her father. By now she had become quite an expert, and Evert was even better. He had won several prizes in his school's skating tournaments. One of the prizes had been a beautiful book called Robinson Crusoe, which he had read so often that the cover had come off. Another time he won a silver pencil, which he gave to Afke, and the last time it had been a book entitled Good Henry, the story of a boy who was always good. This he had promptly traded for a penknife.

Read all the details on the Bethlehem Books website.