Brett: Shootin' and Smilin'

Dave Jenkinson is Associate Dean of the Faculty of Education at the
University of Manitoba.

Sports writer Allen collaborates with St. Louis Blues right-winger Hull
to score with readers, both adult and adolescent, in this episodic
biography featuring one of the NHL’s recent superstars. The book’s
subtitle reflects Hull’s attitude toward professional hockey. “It
just so happens I have an awesome amount of fun when I play,” says
Hull, but his enjoyment of the game has been interpreted by some coaches
(such as the Calgary Flames’ Terry Crisp) and by fans as laziness and
indifference. Hull therefore uses this book as an opportunity for
attempting to correct that misinterpretation by offering readers his
version of the “facts.”

Brett displays characteristics of the stereotypical sports biography,
with its essentially chronological organization, its collection of
amusing and entertaining “insider” anecdotes, and its photo
sections. However, the 32 pages of black-and-white photographs, grouped
into four segments, should alert even casual browsers that this book is
not just another hockey biography. Only the last five photo pages
feature action shots of a skating NHL Hull; most of the remaining
pictures look like the candid photos typically found in family albums.
Unlike most hockey biographies, Brett concentrates more on the human
side of the game and business of hockey and much less on replays of game
action and key goals.

Because the 27-year-old Hull is (one hopes) still early in his
professional hockey career, Brett will no doubt eventually be replaced
by other titles that will give readers longer looks at him. For the
moment though, Brett, a most readable work, must be seen as a necessary,
albeit temporary, purchase for school and public libraries’
recreational-reading sections.