Goodnight, Hockey Fans

August 15, 2017
A hockey superfan can't get to sleep until he tunes his radio to the big game.Early one night, a crescent moon and a sprinkling of stars shine over a dozen houses in a small village. Inside one, a multiracial family (brown-skinned dad, white mom, brown-skinned child) watches the hockey game together, but the son's bedtime comes before the game ends. "What if I can't fall asleep?" he asks as they put him to bed. Indeed, he stays restless and awake, using his flashlight to illuminate items in his room. " 'Goodnight, hockey puck, ' he whispers." He suddenly remembers that he has his dad's radio and turns it on, tuning into the game. With this in his ears, he's soon asleep, dreaming of an exciting hockey game, one in which he bursts onto the ice and seizes control of the puck. After a moment of shock, the other players give chase, too late to catch him. He shoots, he scores! "What a play! What a goal! What a game!" When his parents open the door to check on him, they see that he's sleeping comfortably but they also hear, faintly, the sound of the radio broadcasting the game. "Goodnight, hockey fans from coast to coast." Larsen evocatively captures a lovely childhood moment. Lee's illustrations are nicely composed, with minimal elements and clever use of light. While hockey fans are the most obvious audience for this book, it depicts a familiar childhood scene. (Picture book. 3-6)

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June 1, 2017
Preschool-G A boy and his parents are happily watching a hockey game on TV when bedtime comes. Alone in his room and unable to hear the television commentary, the boy listens to the winter winds outside and shines a flashlight beam on his posters of favorite players and his hockey-puck trophy. He quietly tunes in the game on a radio and, listening to the play-by-play announcer, drifts off to sleep. Every kid's fantasy of becoming the hero plays out that night in his dreams, where he joins the pros on the ice and scores a goal. A Canadian writer, Larsen has a quiet, natural way with words that allows kids to slip right into the boy's experience. The artwork, created in gouache with digital editing, portrays the boy's biracial family, suggests the setting without getting too caught up in details, and reinforces the importance of hockey in the boy's life. A satisfying slice of life that is all the more valuable for helping libraries fill the ongoing demand for sports stories in picture-book collections.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2018
A young hockey fan is tucked into bed before the end of a hockey game he's watching, but tunes in via the radio under his pillow; as the boy drifts off, he dreams himself into the game to score the winning goal. Lee's gouache art, dominated by icy aqua-blue and punctuated with pops of yellow, pairs nicely with this nostalgic yet still relatable childhood scenario.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)