If ever there was a perfect book
for Baby Girl, this is it:
From the School Library Journal Editorial Review at amazon.com (bold emphasis is mine ;-)):
A young hockey player receives the ultimate gift when her parents accidentally buy Wayne Gretzky's hockey stick at a charity auction. However, her father insists that she keep the expensive collector's item displayed on pegs above her bed. Temptation overcomes, and the stick is smuggled to the ice rink inside a huge stuffed giraffe. With the autographed stick, the child scores goal after goal and her team has its best season ever. Meanwhile, Gretzky himself is in a scoring slump. The newspaper says he's lost his stuff. After a sleepless night full of guilty dreams, the protagonist hurries to Madison Square Garden determined to return the magic stick. The hockey pro is so touched by his young fan's generosity that he requests her autograph. A satisfying ending shows the famous stick displayed at the Hockey Hall of Fame. This story is told in humorous rhyme and is accompanied by delightful cartoon illustrations. Even children who have no knowledge of hockey will be entertained by this book and impressed by its message. Maloney and Zekauskas have scored a winning goal with this one.
Yeah, of course we ordered it for her :-) Can't wait to get it and read it myself ;-) Only drawback is there probably won't be any pictures of the orange, white, and blue jersey (the story takes place when he's with the Rangers... go figure ;-)) that Baby Girl is so familiar and enthralled with. Ah well - she'll still enjoy it!
Just occurred to me that I don't believe I've documented Baby Girl's fascination with the autographed Wayne Gretzky Oiler's jersey hanging over the sofa in the TV room. I've talked about her fascination with hockey on TV I think. That alone is priceless to watch. But the whole jersey thing is quite something else!
The jersey was Tim's wedding gift to me. Being Canadian, and born in Edmonton, and a Hockey fan, and a Gretzky fan (the latter two being required by law in Canada now, I believe ;-)) he knew how much the Jersey would mean to me. Anyway - literally from the moment we brought Baby Girl home from the hospital, she's been completely entranced by the dark blue "99" and "GRETZKY" lettering outlined in orange on the white background. She'll stare at it for hours if we let her. It's gotten to the point where, when she's sitting on my lap on the sofa over which the jersey is mounted, she'll actually INSIST on me holding her up so she's face to face with it, so she can stare at it. And the look of awe and excitement on her face is priceless. And the look of genuine disappointment when my arms give out and I bring her back down is equally priceless :-).
Yeah - I know it's probably the stark contrast of the dark blue, outlined in orange, on a white background, that really has her captivated. But I like to believe that a part of it can be attributed to her Canadian blood and thus her innate love of the sport and our national hockey hero :-). As I mentioned, she is also just as captivated by the game when it is on TV. And that I think is the Canadian side of her coming out (and the sports-loving genes she inherited from her Dad! :-))
The other thing I love about this book is that the protagonist is a little girl hockey player. Not a little boy hockey player. How cool is THAT! I'm always on the lookout for books that feature a strong female main character and one that crosses the traditional gender roles. Baby Girl is going to grow up knowing the sky is the limit and she can achieve anything she wants to.
Along those lines I did a quick search on Amazon for picture book biographies for ages 4-8 and found a plethora of really well written, beautifully illustrated, picture book stories based on real and interesting people with amazing and widely varied lives. Rosa Parks, Sadako Sasaki, Jackie Mitchell, "Snowflake" Bentley, Buzz Aldrin, Koko the Gorilla, and Balto the dog were just a few of the many that I found. Of course, some of these will wait until she's older and is capable of some depth of understanding of the history and circumstances of the people and their times, but still - kinda cool to know these are out there!
Comments
The book arrived today and we read it and loved it! I highly recommend it :-)
Posted by heather on January 23, 2006 10:22 PM.