Empty Net Sports Stories

Playing as the starting goalie for her all-girl team and going to the mall with her friends are the main things Maddie Snow loves about living in Burnaby, British Columbia. When her parents tell her that they’re going to move to Fort St. James due to her dad’s getting posted to a new RCMP detachment, Maddie is not thrilled. Moving away from the life she knows and the hockey team she’s grown up on is literally the worst thing she can think of.

But slowly, as time goes on in the family’s new town, Maddie begins to warm up to her new life. She even gets to play on the Stars, the boy’s hockey team. The only downside is that Maddie’s no longer the starting goalie – that position is already occupied by Connor Spencer. Even though Maddie is happy to be a part of the team, she can’t help but wish she was still the star goalie everyone loved and adored like back at home. But when tragedy befalls the team, through Connor’s death, she can’t help but feel guilty for being jealous of Connor in the first place. It’s up to the team to band together to make it through, and Maddie has to find the strength in herself to step up.

In terms of plot, pacing and believability, this short novel handles each aspect very well. The plot has appeal for multiple audiences, and, as the main character is female, the scope is further broadened as there is sometimes a stereotype associated with sports stories. Although the story is a short and easy read, Starr handles the pacing well – the fact that tragedy will strike is briefly foreshadowed, and this feature created believability in what might have otherwise been a very sudden character death.

Empty Net is a story about coping with change – from small changes to big changes to life-shattering changes, and there is a lesson to be learned in each occurrence that Maddie goes through. The overarching themes of change and loss provide a lot of material for use in discussion in a classroom or assignment. Finally, while suitable for all types of readers, I see Empty Net being especially useful to struggling readers, those interested in hockey, as well as a great way to introduce another part of British Columbia to young readers.