Hat Tricks Count : : a Hockey Number Book

Locations
Call Number: Kids Book / Picture Books / Concepts / Numbers
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Kids Books 4-week checkout	Kids Book / Picture Books / Concepts / Numbers	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"Using numbers, hockey's famous people, teams, history, and rules are introduced. Topics include Wayne Gretzky, Hat Trick, Olympic gold medals, and hockey sticks. Each number topic is introduced with a poem and includes side-bar expository text with detailed information"--Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Summary / Annotation

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

On Reflection, Clearly I Overthought This Review submitted by Meginator on August 27, 2022, 6:45pm This book has a ton of great information for young hockey fans, especially those who are interested in the history of the game, but the presentation is severely lacking and significantly limits the book’s potential audience. With a structure mimicking the typical alphabet book, but instead counting from 1 to 10 and then by 10s to 100, this book has two concurrent threads: a(n attempted) brief sing-song trip through the numbers and more in-depth information about each number. The dual nature of the text makes it difficult to figure out how to actually read this book; if you go through the entire thing solely through the rhyming verse, you miss a lot of context when you get to the fleshed-out portions on a second read-through, but if you read everything on a page/spread all at once, you lose any sense of momentum and the educational mathematical component. Moreover, the book simultaneously presumes that readers know almost nothing about hockey (by explaining concepts as basic as the number of players on the ice at a time) and casually refers to more complicated ideas without first explaining them (such as an early reference to the power play with no preceding or accompanying explanation of what a power play is). The information is interesting and the idea behind the presentation is good, but I found this way too difficult to parse as a hockey-loving adult. As for the illustrations, they tend toward the realistic side and do an excellent job of depicting both real historical figures and generic players in action, but a couple of spreads feature repeated illustrations for no discernible reason. I was especially disappointed that one of these was the page about Cammi Granato, the sole woman who makes an appearance by name; surely the illustrator could have offered something more than a group of fans, like an actual portrait that all of the featured men receive? Altogether I found this book a grind and I cannot recommend it to anyone beyond the most hockey obsessed.