A Goal in Sight

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.

With the aggressive urging of his divorced father and the active support
of his coach, 13-year-old Aiden Walsh has become not only the enforcer
on his Calgary hockey team, the Oakridge Devils, but also the league’s
toughest defenceman. However, when Aiden takes his rough stuff outside
the rink and breaks the nose of an opposing player, he finds himself
charged with assault.

A judge sentences Aiden to three months’ probation plus 100 hours of
community service. Aiden is most surprised to learn that his community
service requires his being the Saturday companion of 13-year-old Eric
McLean, who is blind. Aiden is even more astonished to learn that Eric
actually plays hockey and is a member of the Calgary Seeing Eye Dogs, a
team composed of sighted, partially sighted, and blind players. Through
Aiden’s ongoing association with Eric, whom Aiden initially
sarcastically nicknames Runt, he comes to learn more positive ways to
interact with others both off and on the ice, much to the frustration of
his Dad, Charlie, who had envisioned his son making it all the way to
the NHL via the goon route.

Like other titles in the Sports Stories series, A Goal in Sight
combines sports action with a family problem situation. What positively
sets this title apart from others in the series is how Guest naturally
interweaves into the plot information about how hockey is played by the
blind. Though the book’s ending is a little too perfect to be real,
middle-school hockey fans will still enjoy the book’s storyline and
believable characters. Highly recommended.