Hockey's Hottest Defensemen

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Each of these slim titles in the Hockey’s Hottest series focuses on 15
current National Hockey League players who occupy one of the game’s
four major positions. Arranged alphabetically from Peter Forsberg to
Steve Yzerman in Centers, Bryan Berard to Oleg Tverdovsky in Defensemen,
Tom Barrasso to John Vanbiesbrouck in Goalies, and Tony Amonte to Keith
Tkachuk in Wingers, the books treat each player via a pair of facing
pages. In addition to text, the pages offer two full-color action photos
plus a head shot of the player.

The author, a longtime student of the game of hockey, provides a highly
readable text that, in content, goes well beyond the clichéd approach
so often utilized in hockey books intended for juvenile audiences.
Players actually emerge as individuals. Duplacey has also utilized a
balanced approach in his choice of players and includes both the
defensively minded, such as Adam Foote and Keith Primeau, as well as the
more flashy offensive stars, such as Al MacInnis and Wayne Gretzky. He
also provides a rich blend of established players like Paul Coffey and
Mark Messier and newcomers like Chris Phillips and Alexei Yashin.
Duplacey’s choice of goalies and wingers includes players from the
“original six” teams as well as those from more recent expansion
teams like the Carolina Hurricanes.

Each book offers a bonus in the form of a four panel “banner” that
reproduces some of the book’s photographs. Stapled into the book’s
middle, the banner can be removed and used as a room decoration. The
mailing addresses and Web sites of the NHL teams appear on the
banner’s reverse side.

All four books will appeal to elementary-school hockey fans, especially
reluctant readers. Recommended.