SLIS 5420 The Greatest Skating Race

Week Six: Historical Fiction - The Greatest Skating Race

Book Summary: 

         Piet is a young boy living in the Netherlands in 1941 during World War II.  His family is in the business of making ice skates, and his mind is consumed with Pim Mulier’s famous time of 12 hours and 55 minutes to complete the Elfstedentocht, a 200 kilometer skating race across frozen lakes, canals, and rivers. 

         When German soldiers take the father of a friend, the only way to safely move Johanna and her younger brother out of the Netherlands is by skating the ice into Belgium where their aunt lived.  It was Piet’s own race of a lifetime.  This beautifully illustrated book shows the story of the children who lived through World War II in a different way from most books on the subject.  The warm tones of the children skating across the frozen ice are dramatic and you know they are in a race for their lives.

APA Reference:   

Borden, L. (2004). The greatest skating race: A World War II story from the Netherlands. New York, NY: Margaret K. 
          McElderry Books.

My Impressions: 

         I read several books that took place during World War II or, more specifically, the Holocaust, but the story of Piet racing his friends to safety on ice was one of the most inspiring.  I enjoyed learning about the real Elfstedentocht race, which only takes place in years when it is cold enough for all of the natural waterways to be solid ice.  According to the book, most recently, this occurred in 1997. (After searching for information online, the official page confirms this is still the most recent race. http://www.elfstedentocht.nl/)  Historical information included in the book is interesting and enlightening.  The images, created mostly with watercolor and colored pencil, have a smoky, smudged look that fits well with the time period of the story. 

Professional Review: 

         One winter day in 1941, in a German-occupied Dutch town called Sluis, ten-year-old Piet Janssen's ice-skating skills are put to a dangerous test. It's WWII, and Piet's schoolmate Johanna Winkelman's father has been arrested for espionage. Since his friend and her brother are no longer safe at home, Piet must help them escape to their aunt's house in Brugge, skating over icy canals and outsmarting German soldiers until the three cross the Belgian border. The story of this perilous, bitterly cold flight--a race against time--is told in Piet's earnest first-person voice and formatted like poetry, with frequent, often inexplicable line breaks. Themes of bravery, strength, and tradition echo throughout--like the "Swisssshh, swissshhh" of the children's skates. Daly's lovely illustrations, complete with rosy-cheeked innocents and autumnal tones, effectively evoke a sense of time and place in this slow-moving (but nonetheless moving) tale of a child's wartime heroism. (information about the Elfstedentocht, author's note on the history of skating, map) (Picture book 8-11)

The greatest skating race: A World War II story from the Netherlands [Review of the book The Greatest Skating Race: A 
          World War II Story from the Netherlands. (2004, September 15). Kirkus Reviews, 72(18), 911.

Library Uses: 

         Because The Greatest Skating Race is a picture book, it could be used with a variety of ages.  It is fairly long to use for a story time, but would be ideal to use in conjunction with teaching middle elementary students how to use books for research.  Later the children could even look up more information on the Elfstedentocht online, so the librarian could connect the lesson to online research as well.