Hockey Books

The Stars from Mars series is a very amusing, well written series which my 9 year old son loves. The mixture of amusing adventures and clever witticisms renders this book a great read for youngsters and for Moms or Dads who may be reading to them. We do both - and really enjoy these books.

Gordon Korman is a talented author with a genius for rapid-paced, hilarious children's books. Unforunately, these skills are definitely not on display in this latest disappointing outing. Far too many of Korman's recent books (Monday Night Football club series, Chicken Doesn't Skate, Toilet Paper Tigers and now this new Slapshots series) focus on sports. While Korman has always worked with cliches and predictable storylines, he has more than compensated for these shortcomings by writing snappy dialogue and creating zany situations. Stars from Mars has very little to differentiate it from any of Korman's other recent sports books. The story is virtually the same, and, while there are moments that will make the reader smile, overall, this book does not come close to Losing Joe's Place or The War with Mr. Wizzle.

THIS BOOK WAS NOT WRITTEN BY THE AUTHOR ADVERTISED.

ik ben keeper C-1 qui vive het gaar goed met onze team we zijn vorig jaar kampion geworden.

The series of tiny books are genarally not worth paying full price. I liked the Wayne Gretsky book the best. It talks how he could hit a coin in the goal net with a hockey puck far away.

I really didn't like this book! I thought that reading a bio would be a good book to read! Instead, I was wrong. In closing, I thought the book was bad!

This book is a summary of the first 50 years of the National Hockey League, written in 1967. I enjoyed reading this book, mainly just to read the 1967 perspective on hockey events of the past and what people thought would happen in the future. There's a priceless quote towards the end to the effect that no one was likely to break Terry Sawchuk's record of 100 shutouts due to the advent of the two-goalie system. (Might want to warn Martin Brodeur about that one.) It was interesting to read about the NHL's history, but too often events are given without context and that makes you wonder why things were important. Good examples of this are a lot of the trades he lists. Maybe in 1967 the audience was familiar with all of the players discussed, but now reading about the trades seems like wasted prose. The writing style isn't very interesting either, it's mostly just presenting facts without much creativity put into the process. Still, I enjoyed reading it because I learned a lot about both the NHL's and hockey's history, and this book is a good one to pick up at a used book store if you're a big hockey fan.

Body Check is not the best book I have ever read. It was not that good because it was supposed to have a lot more action in it than it did. It was more about people's personal lives. It did not really talk about hockey either; it justed talked about what was going on.

Body Check is about a hockey team that gets a new coach who is a big jerk. The new coach tries to get the old coach fired but nobody wants that.

The type of reader that would like this book would be someone who does not like challenging books. Somebody that would also like this book would be someone who does not like action because this book does not have a lot of action and is very dull.

Super tatoos with excellent team reviews. Each team has a tatoo for their logo and a review about the team. It's a great book.

Great hockey stories and insight into the evolution of modern professional hockey and backroom stories about what hockey referees go through. I like nonfiction and I officiate hockey so this book was a natural. If you're interested in "old time" hockey from the 1960's which is when Bruce Hood started officiating professional hockey or like to get the inside story on the NHL up until the 80's this is a great book. The quality of writing is a little weak but Hood has some great stories about being a referee, traveling around the country, what players and coaches of his era said and how they acted.

It's obvious Bruce Hood is a referee and not a writer, although he had some help with the book. Some readers might be bored when Hood wanders a little too far into his personal life but some might enjoy that aspect of the book.

Although a great buy at $9.95, please be aware that this is a CD only and NOT a book. The picture looks deceiving. I thought I was getting a book AND a CD, but it's only the CD. Still, it's a great collectible for any Duck fan.

In these type of books, I always like to read every
single ending. Not only do you understand how the
whole book was composed, you get your "money's worth"
so to speak, and I think it's a lot of fun. I have a
system of multiple bookmarks so that I know which page
the bookmark refers to for each possibility I do not
choose, and that is how I know I have or have not read
an ending. Some of the possibilities in this book
loop back to the same ending, which is okay. Seems
almost like a lazy way of writing, but for a teenager,
going through some of the possibilities can be
"lengthy" if you have little patience. Unlike some of
the other books, the book has no unhappy endings.
There are some endings which are preferred or
different than others. I ended up becoming the pro
hocker player, probably the best ending. You may also
end up as a cameraman, great skier with a kind of
corny, but good ending related to the theme of the
book, or as a great player on an amateur team or a
team one step above an amateur team. The artwork is
different, probably more intricate, as Eric seems to
be a pretty good artist for the book. Packard is
certainly capable of writing bad endings as he has
some in other CYOA books done by him, but he chose not
to do in this book, and I think for more interesting
possibilities, that charasteristic is needed. It is
very possible that Packard avoided bad endings because
he wanted to try to make the book seem more sellable,
and since the copyright date is 1998, maybe laws have
become more stringent as to what a "teen book" can be?
It would be interesting to meet him and see what he
thinks of the whole CYOA phenomenon now.
I also like how the book has a page with not 2 or 3,
but 4 different possibilities to choose from. As this
is the 3rd to last book, we begin to see that maybe
the idea started to wear out thin as reading has
become less of an adventure with a few video and
computer games that are similar such as the Zork
series or Witness or even Myst. The variety is nice,
but for an older timer such as myself, it was sad to
see the CYOA series end. I never got to appreciate it
fully when it was around as I was not allowed to read
the books anymore after a period of time because of a
so-so tutor. So if you've never read one of these
type of books, you should try one out just to
appreciate a unique genre out there!

"Fly in a Pail of Milk" is the autobiography of Herb Carnegie, the 3-time, Senior League MVP and career minor leaguer, who should have broken the NHL color barrier 20 years before Boston Bruin Willie O'Ree. Despite being referred to as "the best that never played," the Ontario native never realized his dream of playing in the NHL for his beloved Toronto Maple Leafs, most said, because of the color of his skin. Though the pacing, at times, is a bit slow, the book is a worthwhile read, primarily because Carnegie is rarely mentioned in hockey history books, and few of even the most versed hockey fans could tell you who he is.