THE PUCK HOG ~ a Hockey Book Review

It's hockey time again and how can you not get excited that the puck is going to drop at arenas all over the United States? I get super excited watching all the games and my adrenaline pumps as I watch the players go fist-a-cuff with one another! I know it's bad, but I love to see the brawling ~ but that is only on the NHL not within the kid leagues!

 When I was presented with the chance to read The Puck Hog, by Christie Casciano I was really quite excited. Reading is something we do nightly in my home and hockey is the game of choice in our house so this was a perfect way to end the day. My son in one arm and a great book in another! The story is filled with the great perils of an astute hockey parent and the proper morals of a child playing hockey.

 Hogging is not fun for anyone, it is just hogging and it can bring a team down, because you win as a team not an individual. This book is a must read for any parent with a child in hockey. Sophia, one of the main characters in the book has to bare down and swallow hard in order to persevere during hockey games because of her a 'puck hogging' teammate Eddie.  Sophia is not alone in her battle of, "do I say something or don't I say something" as the team is slowly closing Eddie out.

I bet if the bleachers at youth hockey games across the world could talk  I bet they would have thousands more stories like the one I read tonight.  Battling for the puck against opposite teams is hard enough, yet battling for your own shot at handling the puck and scoring against your own teammate is really the pits!

Young children in the Mites, Squirts and Pee Wees are just developing skills sets that they will carry on with them throughout their playing career. When you start off learning wrong, the methodology sticks with you, until it reaches a pinnacle and that pinnacle is the turning point from which the wrong-doer can no longer continue! This book should serve as a great eye-opener to any parent with a child on a hockey team because we are all guilty of coaxing our children of 'puck hogging' at one time or another.

 Sophia, wants her team to be the best in the league but she clearly recognizes that there is a problem with the size of Eddie's head. I do believe Sophia and her team mates wonder if Eddie will actually be able to get his head through the doors with the arrogance he boasts. How many times have your kids been on a team with a Puck Hog? I don't even have to close my eyes to come up with at least three children from our previous teams who remind me so much of good old Eddie, the character who lacks great character in The Puck Hog.

 Eddie is not your typical youth hockey player, loving the ice, loving the scoring, assisting, passing and winning as a team, he really seems to lose sight of the overall goal of playing as a team... playing as a team! Passing is a word that is non-existent in his vocabulary.

While only superficially hinted at, the underlying story is almost as creative as The Puck Hog's main story about Eddie.  The real big bully(The Truest Puck Hog), the thing Eddy is fighting against the hardest, is not opposite team mates but his own parent. Youth hockey is tough, but bad parent tactics, and wrongful encouragement of goal scoring for reward, only reaps bad benefits, and Eddie's team mates already are biting their mouthguards in order to keep things civilized.  Eddie hears everything but listens to no one other than his father. Will this cost Eddie his game? Friends? Eddie and his need to score prophecy are sucking the life out of the rest of the team.

 This book will have you cheering for Sophia, the gutsy young girl who adds a little 'ice' to a hot situation, as she turns cheek, and 'assists' Eddie to be a little bit more of himself. Will this 'assist' be a turning point? Will Eddie learn from his mistakes? A great book with sportsmanship on the cuff at all points in time. Perseverance, strong team commitment and a need to have to set things straight make Sophia a strong character with a great go-get-her attitude!  This is a perfect read for those children beginning hockey, in learn-to-play, Mites and Squirts.  Then again, I think there are parents at every level that need to read this book for  a brush-up on hockey etiquette and the ramifications on their children! A must read for youths in hockey.


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