Pistes d'exploration

Survey the class: How many students play hockey? Ringette? How many can skate? What is their favourite winter activity? Graph the results.

Have you ever changed homes or cities, or felt homesick while on a vacation? Share your story with the class. What did you and your parents, siblings or friends do to help you feel better?

How were Owen’s parents able to keep the hockey rink a secret? What’s the best surprise you have ever experienced? Write about it in your journal.

Discuss how Owen is feeling at the end. Imagine you are Owen or his sister. Write a letter to a friend back in Saskatchewan, telling them about Christmas Eve.

With a partner, write out the sequence of the story. 

Make a class list of winter games and sports. Choose one of your favourites. In your opinion, what are the best conditions for playing that game or sport? 

On pages 24 and 25, assorted hockey jerseys are portrayed along with a list of cities. Locate these cities on a map and match them with pictures of the appropriate jerseys.

Retell a moment when you participated in a great winter activity such as the hockey game planned by Owen’s parents. What was special about it? Who was present? Illustrate the new story or add pictures of the event. 

Mots-clés

Picture book , Canadian culture , community , family life , hockey , illustrations (oil paint) , moving (household) , winter

Commentaire descriptif

Owen and Holly have just moved to Kettle Harbour, Nova Scotia, from Saskatchewan. They miss their friends. They miss skating and playing hockey on the frozen lake back home. Playing shinny in the driveway just isn’t the same. But what they don’t know is that their Dad is preparing a big surprise for them, something that will be revealed only on Christmas Eve. Their one clue? It involves a large number of lobster crates. A good seasonal read-aloud, the narrative builds suspense as the story progresses. Trying to unravel the big mystery, Owen and Holly exchange glances as they overhear their parents’ muffled voices on the porch. Luminous paintings with a soft focus call up memories of cozy winter evenings by the hearth after a day of ice-skating. Illustrations complement the text and dramatize the action—both the pensive moments and the dynamic hockey sequences. This heartwarming tale about community and friendship comes with a brief author’s note about his earliest memories of hockey as a young boy growing up in Québec, and later, British Columbia.