"Your brother outgrew these at the end of last season, so I took them in to get sharpened and put in some new laces. They almost look new, don't they?” his father asked.
Without a doubt, Bobby Orr is one of the greatest players to ever play the game of hockey. The story of the hand-me-down skates follows Bobby's early hockey years and humble childhood experiences in rural Ontario. Hoping for brand new skates at Christmas, Bobby receives instead his sibling's old pair - along with all the problems that come with ill-fitting blades. Disappointed, Bobby makes the best of his circumstances and focuses on the game. Sure enough, in time, his hand-me-down skates become his most indispensable piece of equipment as he stickhandles and scores on homemade rinks and league rinks alike.
The images for this story are marvelously engaging and rendered in oil and watercolour pencil. The illustrator plays with light and dark, depth and line providing a rich sense of closeness to each scene - cold feels cold, leather can almost be touched.
Bobby Orr and the Hand-Me-Down Skates will make an excellent contribution to Canada's current hockey collection of illustrated hockey stories and can be read aloud to grades K-2.
Dr. David Ward is a principal, professor, and children's author in British Columbia.
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