Roch Carrier

A young Montreal boy must endure the indignity of wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey sweater in this modern classic of Canadian children's literature. When his red, white and blue sweater - the uniform of the Montreal Canadiens, worn by his idol, Maurice Richard - becomes too small for him, the narrator's mother sends away for a new one from the Eaton's catalogue. When the wrong sweater arrives, the boy insists he will not wear it: all of his peers wear the Canadiens sweater, and so will he! His mother has other ideas however, and he finds himself wearing it after all. This leads to trouble at his first game thereafter, and a visit to church...

Originally published in French as "Une abominable feuille d'érable sur la glace" (literally: "An abominable maple leaf on the ice"), The Hockey Sweater was first translated into English in 1979 as part of the collection, The Hockey Sweater and Other Stories. It was made into a short film in 1980 ("The Sweater"), and presented in this picture-book form in 1984, with artwork by Sheldon Cohen, who also illustrated Carrier's The Flying Canoe. Set in 1946, the story is immensely engaging, and absolutely hilarious. I chuckled aloud on more than one occasion, while reading it. Carrier captures the centrality of ice hockey to the narrator's life (apparently the story is partially autobiographical) and to Canadian culture, and his narrative feels like it is told from an authentic boy's perspective. Cohen's artwork is colorful and entertaining, capturing the humor of the tale quite nicely. I enjoyed this so much that I think I will track down the larger collection of Carrier's stories, mentioned above. Recommended to anyone looking for children's stories featuring ice hockey and/or a French-Canadian cultural setting.… (altro)