Mr. Zamboni's Dream Machine

Teya Rosenberg teaches children’s literature at the University of
Alberta.

Hockey-obsessed 9-year-old Daniel has problems with his divorced father,
who is living his own unfulfilled hockey dreams through his son. When
Daniel’s team loses, his father becomes harsh about Daniel’s
inadequacies on the ice. The Zamboni driver at the local hockey rink
sees Daniel’s depression and invites him inside his Zamboni machine,
where Daniel finds a mini-theatre and views his dreams of being a hockey
star. When those dreams serve only to distract him from his game,
enraging his father further, he then views his father’s dreams and
begins to understand his father’s impatience. This story’s weakness
is that, despite Daniel’s greater understanding of himself and his
father, his perception does not really alter his relationship with his
father; Daniel’s problems are finally solved when his father meets the
divorced mother of one of Daniel’s teammates. Thus, the dreams and the
understanding they bring have little real effect in Daniel’s life.

Mr. Zamboni’s Dream Machine has much to offer the hockey-obsessed
child but little for the fantasy reader. Daniel’s love of hockey, his
problems, and the ultimate solution to them are realistic and well
portrayed. The fantasy element, Mr. Zamboni’s dream machine, is not
entirely believable, and there is no sense that it ultimately helps
Daniel beyond what he could have done for himself. It seems extraneous
to an otherwise satisfying story about the trials of a Novice C. Hockey
player. Recommended with reservations.