Hockey Heroes
Description
$8.95
ISBN 1-55028-596-3
DDC jC813'.54
Author
Publisher
Year
Contributor
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.
Review
Middle-school readers first encountered Mason Ashbury in Roller Hockey
Blues. As Slam Dunk opens, Mason’s junior high basketball team, the
Cabbagetown Raptors, is short players, which means the team will have to
become co-ed or forfeit league play. Predictably, some of the “guys”
object to their five new teammates. The divided Raptors lose their first
game; in order to reach the championship tournament in Ottawa, they must
win all their remaining games. Paired in a biology lab with Cindy, a new
Raptor, Mason discovers that they have much in common, and the duo hatch
a plan to unify the team. Their scheme is successful, but when Cindy
catches Mason drinking a bottle of beer—an action that reminds her of
her absent, alcoholic father—she terminates their beginning romance.
However, all ends well for both the Raptors and Mason’s and Cindy’s
relationship.
Hockey Heroes continues the story of Cody Powell begun in Hockey Night
in Transcona. Cody, now 13 and a left-winger on the Transcona Sharks, is
playing on a line centred by Kyle Kelly, the league’s self-centred
superstar. His newfound fame prompts a suddenly egotistical Cody to join
Kyle in open rebellion against their coach, Joe Franklin, who believes
that giving all lines equal ice time is more important than winning.
Complicating Cody’s life is the fact that his mother has begun to date
Coach Franklin while his younger sister, Tish, hopes (in vain) that her
divorced parents will reunite. By story’s end, both Cody and Tish have
achieved new self-knowledge.
Quick reads, Slam Dunk and Hockey Heroes will appeal to reluctant
readers. Recommended.