So, You Be Keon and I'll Be Mahovlich

by Oksanna Crawley | Children's Books |
ISBN: 1449002439 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Pooker3 of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on 10/18/2010
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Pooker3 from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Monday, October 18, 2010
I had to buy this book when I came across it (and its author!) at WOTS in Toronto in September of this year. It is a very pretty book, very Canadian with its snowy winter picture and a small boy spotlighted practising his shot on the outdoor rink beneath those towering snow covered trees. But, the reason I bought it was the title. As I read it, "So, you be Keon and....", I expected the rest to read, "I'll be Ellis". But, no! "...I'll be Mahovlich" Super cool!

As a Canadian kid, I spent every Saturday night parked in front of the TV with the rest of my family watching Hockey Night in Canada. Who didn't?

My brother was a Habs fan. The fool! But the rest of the family were die-hard Leafs fans. And my favourite player forever and ever was Frank Mahovlich. I cried when he was traded.

I knew I had to buy this book.

Journal Entry 2 by Pooker3 at Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Sunday, October 24, 2010
Do you remember when the Star Weekly featured a full page photo of an NHL star each week? I do and I still have the one they did for Frank Mahovlich. The Moose. The Big M. Number 27. My father thought Frank was a bit of a goofball, but Frank Mahovlich was my hero. And although I used to scold my father whenever he laughed at Frank, I never told him that, in fact, I thought he was very much like Frank Mahovlich. He, my dad, was a bit of a goofball too and he was also my hero.

My dad never told me that girls don't make the NHL. Although my brother frequently did and I even knew that was true. My dad let me dream that it could happen. He let me dream it could happen when, even as I polished my skates white and my mother sewed the sequins on my figure skating costumes, he bought me hockey sticks and pucks and hockey gloves (despite my mother suggesting that new school shoes would be money better spent) and he put a rink in our backyard at home and cleared a rink on the lake at camp complete with blue lines and goals. And he stood on the sidelines and watched while my brother and I practiced our crossovers, dekes and slapshots.

Of course it's been a long time since I thought I could be the first girl in the NHL. It's been a long time since kids played hockey outdoors under the stars til they had frostbite in their cheeks and their toes were so frozen they couldn't feel them anymore (but most definitely would when they warmed up again). But as I read this book I was reminded of that time as clearly as if it were yesterday.

This is the story of young Niall who dreams of playing for the NHL. Niall doesn't have a dad who can help with that dream. Niall 's dad died. So someone else comes to help him. Interestingly, when I spoke to the author in Toronto I did not recall the story of number 5, but I do now.

This is a story you will love to read to your own young dreamer and it's a story you'll love to read to the dreamer who was you!


Journal Entry 3 by Pooker3 at Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Friday, October 29, 2010

Released 13 yrs ago (10/29/2010 UTC) at Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

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Released to a friend as an introduction to BookCrossing (with some confidence that she'll enjoy not only the book but also our wonderfully wacky BookCrossing "family"). :)

Journal Entry 4 by spear4 at Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Tuesday, November 2, 2010
This book is magical and beautiful. It is my first BookCrossing book.

This book brought back many memories for me, too. One is the love of skating outdoors under the stars, so free. You can move so fast on skates with so little effort. Yah it was -30C but we kept playing. A friend of mine and I would get up at 5:30 a.m to go skate with her dad before school started.

Another is playing Ringette and being part of a team. My dad was the coach. Oh my gosh, this is thirty some odd years ago now.

This book also reminded me of a collection of hockey like stickers or cards of NHL players that you received when you got gas at Esso. We would trade them at school and then there was a collectors book you stuck them in.

Does anyone remember these?

Wow! thank you to the Bookcrosser that gave me this book. I am interested to see where it goes.


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