Timberwolf Hunt.

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.

Like the earlier Timberwolf Chase and Timberwolf Revenge, this pair of chapter books also feature Johnny Maverick, a centre for the Howling Timberwolves hockey team. In Timberwolf Hunt, Coach Elwell temporarily takes over while Coach Smith is on four weeks’ vacation. Authoritarian and humorless, Coach Elwell both favors and demeans his son Eldridge who, although a poor skater, is given more ice time by his father than any other player. Following the Timberwolves’ four-game losing streak, Johnny and fellow centre Tom Morgan try to persuade Eldridge to approach his father about reducing his playing time, something Eldridge fears doing. However, with the passive support of Stinky, a flatulent dog, Eldridge proves he is a true team player.

Timberwolf Trap is a triple header involving the theme of pride. Johnny and Tom, deadlocked in the league’s goal scoring race, each claim to be more interested in the team’s success than personal glory, an assertion each is called upon to prove. Coach Smith, although an excellent coach, is inept with tools. When his pride prevents him from asking for help in building a garage, Johnny’s father must engage in a deliberately unsuccessful prank in order to be in Coach Smith’s debt. Finally, Dale, who comes from a poor family, is the eighth son in 15 years to use the same hockey equipment, and its odour makes the flatulent Stinky seem rose-like. Because Dale’s father will not accept charity, Johnny must devise a plan to make new gifted equipment acceptable. More than a dozen of Griffiths’s full and half page illustrations decorate the pages of each volume of this light reading fare. Of the two books, Timberwolf Hunt contains the greater hockey action. Recommended.