The Ghost of the Stanley Cup

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

Roy MacGregor engages the reader with lively repartee, suspense, and
action that excite, entertain, and educate page after page as the reader
follows the mysterious adventures of the Screech Owls hockey team.

In The West Coast Murders, the team travels to Vancouver where a boat
ride on the Pacific leads to a horrifying discovery. The mysterious
deaths of a dolphin and a marine biologist are later tied to a drug,
smuggling scheme that the team uncovers. All this occurs during an
exciting three-on-three hockey tournament, where the team learns that
this style of game requires a surprisingly different set of skills and
strategies, which yields some unexpected results.

In The Ghost of the Stanley Cup, the team is in Ottawa for a summer
tournament without their coach. A curious stranger offers his assistance
and the team learns some interesting hockey history from this secretive
and mysterious “coach.” Ghost stories around a campfire add an eerie
atmosphere to the intrigue and, in the end, the truth is almost
impossible to believe.

In all of the Screech Owls books, the combined sports and travel
background is informative, the hockey action is riveting, and the
characters are convincing. The casual style and quick, perky sentences
enliven the educational content of these short chapter books, which are
a definite must-have for any preteen collection. Highly recommended.