Jan tries hard to be a miller’s boy… but his natural talent for painting keeps shining through. Yet wherever he goes and whatever success life brings to him, he’ll always remember his foster-family and always be proud of his “miller’s thumb.”
Jan of the Windmill is around the length of Anne of Green Gables or A Little Princess.
The story revolves around a young boy who eventually becomes a successful painter through his patience and hard work, but the writing style is not the simplest, so it’d probably be hard to follow for those younger than 11+.
You’ll find my brief conclusion and a link to the book if you skip to the end—or read on through if you want all the details!
The Plot [spoiler alert!]
Jan of the Windmill doesn’t have a groundbreaking plot; it’s a fairly straightforward story of a boy abandoned by his father under stress of circumstances, but eventually reunited.
Jan is left as a baby with Master Lake, windmiller in an out of the way town. I think I should be pardoned for having thought that the story started in the Netherlands, given the name Jan and the v-heavy dialect; but about halfway through, from a variety of casual references to London and such like hints, I realized that we’d been in England this whole time—though I don’t know where in England! Jan is, however, Dutch on his mother’s side—thus the name.
About half the book is about Jan’s growth and the build up to the revelation of his parentage is pretty slow. But he’s a great character, sweet without being unreal, and there’s enough quiet humor to make the read an enjoyable one.
Jan is eventually kidnapped by the nurse who accompanied his father to drop him off, and claimed by her as her son. He is put to work drawing in the streets, which further develops his talent. But the life is becoming unbearable, so he runs away and is taken to an orphanage. Here his talent arrests the eye of an artist looking for a model. He finds much more than just a model in Jan, and so he takes the boy on. Before long, it’s more like the boy has taken him on; he’s doing much of the work. After making enough money to travel to his old home, they go for a visit to Jan’s old schoolmaster and his foster-father, both of whom are on their last legs. With encouragement and some more information from the villagers, the artist decides to try to find Jan’s parents. His real father is discovered to have had understandable though selfish reasons for abandoning him; his mother had died long before; and his new step-mother is thoroughly welcoming, as is his step-brother. All therefore ends happily ever after, Jan becomes a famous painter, and Ewing carefully avoids ever stating his last name, leaving the reader to decide whether or not it’s fact or fiction. Not being very versed in the history of painters’ personal lives, I have no idea whether this was “based on a true story” or just completely made up. There have, of course, been loads of painters with the first name of Jan and I haven’t the time to look up all their backstories.
As I mentioned to begin with, the plot isn’t terribly novel. There are some twists and turns, but the author doesn’t hype them or create any cliffhangers. The story’s interest rides rather on the interest the reader is meant to have in the main character, Jan—and without being a masterpiece, he’s interesting, realistic, and sweet.
6/10
The Point
Jan of the Windmill is written in a bit of a moralizing strain, which allows the author to naturally include reflections such as, “Uneducated people will take anything in from the doctor through their mouths, but little or nothing through their ears,” and, “there is no rising far in the moral atmosphere with a willful, unrepented sin as a clog.” Besides these and similar reflections interspersed throughout the book, Jan is presented as an example of hard work, patience, and uncomplaining submissiveness to his lot in life. There’s not as much of an overarching theme as I’d like to see, but that doesn’t detract from the excellent points made along the way.
6/10
The Style
Ewing’s style is calm and a bit disinterested, tending to focus more on what the characters are thinking than on what they are saying. Jan of the Windmill is not a book you can’t put down, but it’s pleasant to read and with a vein of quiet humor showing up now and again.
If I wanted to critique it, I would say that it would be hard to name a target audience; given the uncomplex, unexciting plot about a little boy, it’s clearly a children’s story, but it doesn’t have the fast-paced narrative you might expect. I don’t really mind this; as a child I read plenty of such books and enjoyed them, but I do think overall a book is improved when style and content both have a clear and unified intention—in this case, of capturing a child’s attention and presenting whatever morals you might want to include in a simple way. Of course, you never want to be talking down to your audience, so it’s a fine line, but I would say in this case Ewing’s style is noticeably more polished than her simple plot.
6/10
Conclusion
6/10
I find I’ve given Jan of the Windmill a consistent “I liked it” score right down the line. It’s got a decent plot around a sweet character, with plenty of thought provoking reflections along the way, and a smooth, calm style interspersed with quiet humor. I recommend the book as a good read for just about anyone, but I wouldn’t put it on my list of must-reads.
You can find Jan of the Windmill as a free ebook on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5601
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Geneva D 
What do you think?