Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle

edition: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1957
originally written in 1888


I've been creating a literature reading list for the next school year for my daughter who is 7 (blog name Pillango). We will be studying medieval times starting with Christianity arriving in Britain to the end of the 16th century. All of the assigned books on our reading list fall into this time period.

One book I didn't choose to put on the reading list is "Otto of the Silver Hand" by Howard Pyle. However, I checked out a copy from the library because I wanted to read it. Pillango and I read it together recently. This book was a wonderful introduction to medieval times - the language, the customs, the darkness and the way of life.

We read about Otto, the unfortunate circumstances of this birth, his monastic upbringing and his return to the harsh world after turning 12. It was a perfect read-aloud for Pillango because everytime I returned to reading it she was immediately captivated by the details and events even though initially she was resistant to picking it up again.

The other captivating aspect of this book was the artwork. Almost every page included a captioned picture created by the author.