Growing up in Canada, Hockey is one of the major sports so it makes sense that my daughter would love to read about Hockey and with the winter season nearing, Hockey will soon be in full blast so why not this Christmas discover four of the greatest children’s books featuring the sport of Hockey and who knows after reading them, you may have created a budding Hockey star in the making.
1) The Big Game – written by Gilles Tibo and Illustrated by Bruno St-Aubin – Is your child a fan of Ice Hockey? Have they or do they love the movies Mighty Ducks? In “The Big Game” it is Nicholas’s first hockey game and all is family want to do is give him bits and pieces of advice but unfortunately, the more Nicholas tries to retain the advice the more confused he gets and he ends up messing his game of Ice Hockey. Eventually all his team members start to feel the pressure when it is discovered that they are losing and the game heads for the sticks as they start to lose quite badly. The second half of the book focuses on Nicholas as he comes up with a plan to help his team members buck up their ideas and start scoring winning goals. The Big Game is one of those picture books that will have the children smiling at the end with the twist of events. The Big Game can also work as a fun learning guide to share with your children what could happen when they start to feel overwhelmed by their feelings and emotions. As little ones love colourful illustrations “The Big Game” does not disappoint and adds a little extra fun for the children as hidden on each page is Nicholas’s pet’s cat and mouse. The Big Game can be shared with under 5’s but is aimed as a read-alone for children aged 6-8yrs old.
2) Over at the Rink –written by Stella Parthenlou Grasso and Illustrated by Scott Ritchie – Over the Rink where Hockey is the craze , this book is aimed for your pre-schoolers and my 4yr old daughter loves it. Over the Rink helps your children with its use of counting skills to reinforce your children’s skills at being able to count from one to ten. What I loved about this book was that the author has written her story in line with the same tune to the traditional children’s nursery rhyme “Over in the Meadow” so as you read the book, your child will be familiar sound-wise with the theme and rhythms of “Over at the Rink”. The setting of the story is at the local outdoor Hockey rink where two teams are about to verse each other. Complete with bright illustrations and a fun rhythm this book is perfect to read to children aged 4-7 years.
3) My First Hockey Book – written by Ian Chrysler – This is one of my daughter’s favourite books, in her kindergarten class each day they have a special student of the day and they get to bring a book to share to the class and this is the one that she chose to bring along. With only 28 pages long, My First Hockey book is the perfect read for toddlers as it doesn’t contain many words and the media used for the illustrations are full coloured photos. This book covers not just Ice Hockey for what we are famous for but also images of road hockey to others observing games of hockey. Due to the few words on each page, my 4yr old daughter is now able to read the book by herself verbatim. As we all know having little ones that they love to stick their fingers everywhere, Ian Chrysler along with Scholastic Canada have ensured that parents will never have to worry about the pages of the book getting dirty and stained as a special binding has been used. As we have all heard a million times the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”, that rings true in Ian Chrysler’s “My First Hockey Book”.
4) Crosby’s Golden Goal – written by Mike Leonetti and Illustrated by Gary McLaughlin – One of Canada’s most famous Hockey Players and now an event that has been put into Sporting history is Sidney Crosby and his Golden Goal as it will now be forever remembered as the perfect capper for the Olympics held in Vancouver in 2010. Crosby’s Golden Goal takes us into the world of Tyler who loves hockey and everything to do with it, but one day he wakes up to the idea that the game of Hockey has taken over his life. So, taking a break Tyler takes the chances to become an observer of the game and at the same time follow one of his Hockey heroes Sidney Crosby. While being on the side-lines, this may be the very push that Tyler needs to realize just how important the game of hockey is to him and that without it, he feels that a huge part of him is missing. Author Mike Leonetti has written the book with the ages of 8-12years in mind and has interwoven both fictional and real-life accounts of what happened with Sidney Crosby and his Olympic goal to make it relatable to readers.
Parents, this winter why not introduce the healthy sport of Hockey with this great collection of four wonderful winter filled hockey books and who knows they might even inspire your child to one day become a hockey player as I did in school years.
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