On Thin Ice

On Thin Ice is the second instalment in Kevin Sylvester’s new series, “Hockey Super Six”, with the first being The Puck Drops Here. In On Thin Ice, readers meet up with Benny, Jenny, Karl, Starlight, DJ, and Mo as they once again face off (hockey pun most definitely intended--- this book is full of them!) against the evil Dr. Crosscheck. After Crosscheck replaces the members of the political Opposition with robots and sneaks through a new law that allows the transfer of power between political parties to be determined by the results of a hockey game, it’s up to the Super Six to stop him from overtaking the entire Canadian government and turning all the schools into workshops.

The task proves more difficult than they thought as Crosscheck has a number of tricks up the sleeve of his lab coat: kidnapping, booby traps, and mind-control devices, to name a few. When the game goes poorly, things only get worse as Crosscheck tries to keep his governmental control but instead learns some valuable lessons: don’t trust robots, for one, and don’t treat people poorly (particularly those who work for you and know your secrets). When former Prime Minister Patinage requests a do-over of the hockey game, Crosscheck also learns not to underestimate the Super Six.

On Thin Ice is just as wacky, silly, and action-packed as the first book, with double the amount of puns (and a little bonus bathroom humour; “eating farts” may even have elicited a giggle from the most mature of readers). This time, in addition to the hockey gags that seem to run through the series, readers are also treated to a variety of robot jokes—leader of the Opposition Rob Ott and new principal Mr. Otto Matton, for example. The recurring characters in the series are developing nicely as the story unfolds, the illustrations are again numerous without being intrusive, and the plot is entertaining. Once again, the book has an ending left wide open for another instalment; readers of the first two books will be eagerly awaiting the third.