Taking the Ice

Taking the Ice introduces readers to Aiden Mallory, an 11-year-old who has recently moved to the small town of Prairie Field. Used to living in Florida as the son of an NHL hockey player, he is not impressed with the Canadian cold. He’s also struggling for other reasons – he and his mother had to move back to Prairie Field following his father’s tragic, accidental death. On top of dealing with an incredible amount of grief and loss, Aiden has to make new friends and adjust to his new home, all while trying to live up to being the son of Luke Mallory, hometown hero and hockey superstar.

Readers meet Aiden just as he’s gearing up for U-13 hockey tryouts, a big deal in Prairie Field. Aiden feels like he chokes during tryouts, a result of his anxiety around living up to the memory of his father. He ends up on the third-tier team, along with a well-rounded set of teammates. There’s Craig, the bully with a stereotypical aggressive hockey dad; Jory, Craig’s friend and generally good guy; Susie, one of the few girls who goes out for hockey in the small town; and Manny, a brand new player from a large family where hockey isn’t always the priority. When Aiden is selected as captain (much to Craig’s anger), he has to work to navigate the social nuances of his team.

Aiden is also trying to connect with his community and father’s memory. To that end, and to help improve his game, he starts practicing early in the morning with Ned, the hockey rink’s maintenance man who used to practice with Luke’s father when he was growing up. The problem is that ice time is limited, the rink is running old lights that need to be replaced, and it costs too much to keep the lights on beyond the minimal ice time for all the teams in the town. As the season goes on, it gets clearer and clearer that someone suspects the rink is being used during off-hours. Aiden is torn; he knows that using the extra ice time is wrong, but it’s also one of the only things that makes him feel connected to his father.

Taking the Ice shows the genuine relationships, growth, and struggles faced by kids as they approach their teen years. They struggle with fitting in (whether they are new to a place or not), with balancing their own personal desires with an understanding of how their choices can impact their wider community, and they struggle with navigating complicated relationships with peers who are sometimes going through struggles of their own. Nicholson navigates some tougher topics in a way that is appropriate to her target audience. Bullying, grief, lying, and tension caused by socio-economic differences are all explored, examined, and resolved in ways that feel authentic to the characters. The characters don’t always deal with everything perfectly the first time, but they do show growth as they navigate these obstacles and eventually land on healthy resolutions. Nicholson achieves this with an authentic youth voice in her writing and without ever coming across as preachy or didactic.