CM Magazine: I Love to Play Hockey

________________ CM . . . . Volume I Number VI . . . . July 21, 1995

I Love to Play Hockey
Dale Klassen. Illustrated by Rhian Brynjolson
Winnipeg: Pemmican Publications Inc., 1994
42pp, paper, $9.95.
ISBN 0-921827-44-X. CIP

Subject Heading:
Hockey-Juvenile fiction.

Preschool - grade 2 / Ages 4 - 7
Review by Dave Jenkinson

In this very simple picture book, two young boys, the un-named narrator and his friend Iain, play street hockey every day after school, and play in the occasional Saturday afternoon pick-up game with older kids at an outdoor rink. The quite straightforward text always appears on the right-hand pages, and is usually just a phrase or a single sentence.

The book has no real plot; instead, the narrator merely describes what he and his friend do as the two of them alternate shooting and playing goal. He also shares his dream of someday playing in the "big leagues," and Brynjolson includes a dream sequence of illustrations showing the narrator, in Toronto Maple Leaf uniform, scoring on Iain, who is outfitted as a Montreal Canadien.

Though Brynjolson's colour illustrations capture hockey's action, they do not adequately reflect winter's coldness. Consistent with Pemmican's output, only the illustrations reveal that the book's characters are not members of the majority culture.

Recommended as an additional purchase.

Dave Jenkinson teaches courses in children's and YA literature in the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - JULY 21, 1995.