The Golden Goal

The Golden Goal is a picture book that tells the story of Canada’s gold medal game in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Hockey fans will love the rhyming text and this play-by-play style of storytelling that builds excitement up towards Sidney Crosby’s game-winning goal. The author, Matthew Cade, is a producer for TSN, and his familiarity with the content is clear in his choices to focus on aspects such as team roster and key events in the game.

Patrick Gray’s stylized comic illustrations are lively and dynamic but are sometimes let down by the blocky capitalized text—intended to resemble players’ names on hockey jerseys—that is squished together and needlessly difficult for young readers to decode. The challenging text layout and heavy reliance on players’ last names may take a little practice for readers to read smoothly, but this book is sure to be reread by many children. The Golden Goal will be a clear winner for young hockey fans.