The Face-Off Phony

Deborah Dowson is a Canadian children’s librarian in North Wales,
Pennsylvania.

For the first time in 30 years, the little town of Mars has an
elementary hockey team to compete in the Waterloo Slapshot League, but
the exclusive league is determined to discourage, undermine, eliminate,
and discriminate against the newly formed team.

These classic Gordon Korman sports stories are replete with outrageous
but endearing characters, off-the-wall escapades, and laugh-out-loud
humor. The stories are narrated by 11-year-old school sports reporter
Clarence “Chipmunk” Adeleman, whose addiction to jawbreaker candy is
legendary and whose dream is to write for Sports Illustrated. He is the
kind of kid whose priorities often clash with those of the authorities
(with humorous results), but his indomitable spirit ultimately prevails.


The team from Mars is a crazy mix of absurd players, who are led by a
coach whose memory is so bad he substitutes whatchamacallits, whosits,
and thingamabobs for whatever he is trying to say. His wife is beautiful
enough to cause a hockey game to crash to a halt, and together they
serve the team disgusting-sounding concoctions from their health-food
store for the post-game treats.

Korman is a master of hyperbole, and as colorful as his characters are,
the plots are even funnier. Hilarious situations, enticing tension, and
thrilling conclusions make for perfect comedy. In Chipmunk’s words,
“It was a hundred great stories all rolled up into one—a Cinderella
team, a spectacular comeback, justice triumphing over unfairness and
outsiders finally earning their rightful place. It was high voltage,
mega-powered, H-bomb, supernova, fantastic!” Guaranteed the kids
won’t be able to read just one. All of the books are highly
recommended.