Roller Hockey Blues

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.

These two titles are part of Sports Stories series. In terms of plot
quality, Hat Trick is definitely the high scorer. Calgarian Leigh
Aberdeen, 12, is not only the sole girl on her ice-hockey team, but she
is also one of its star players. As the Falcons reach the city playoffs,
Jimmy Crane, the team captain, intensifies his verbal and physical
bullying of Leigh in an attempt to get her to quit hockey. Predictably,
Leigh stands up to him and proves her worth by scoring three goals,
including the winner, in the championship game.

A strong subplot is interwoven with the main story. The child of
divorced parents, Leigh lives with her father. On weekends she visits
her mother, a member of the Tsua T’ina Nation, at the reserve. There
she engages in her other passion, native Fancy Dancing. Because her
father has rejected his own Métis ancestry, choosing to pass as white,
Leigh does not tell him about the dancing. Nor has she told her
accident-fearing mother about her involvement in hockey. Leigh’s two
hidden worlds collide when a major dance festival is scheduled opposite
the championship game.

Roller Hockey Blues starts strongly. At the close of Grade 8, Mason
Ashbury is about to be separated from his buddies for the summer because
his widowed mother, a Toronto convenience store owner, cannot afford to
send him to camp. Mason’s disappointment at having to spend the
holidays helping in the store is somewhat alleviated when he is
befriended by Jim Littlefield, sponsor and coach of the Littlefield
Blues, a Rollerblade hockey team.

Co-authors Barwin and Tick fail to create any real dramatic tension.
That Mason will gain a place on the team is never in doubt, while the
“villain,” Matt the puck-hog, is a stereotype. Mason’s response to
Littlefield’s romantic interest in his mother also remains
undeveloped. Roller Hockey Blues sputters to an end after the season’s
first game.

While Hat Trick is recommended and would be a useful addition to school
and public libraries, Roller Hockey Blues is not recommended.