That’s Not Hockey! by Andrée Poulin is a book by Annick Press (2018). It’s the story of Jacques Plante who played for the Montreal Canadiens and helped change the face of Hockey.
Disclosure: We received the book in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links.
The Story
The story starts off showing how Jacques played hockey however he was able as a kid (with a ball instead of a puck and a real stick instead of a hockey stick.) The cries of “That’s Not Hockey” are supposed to show that he started off not playing real hockey but eventually was playing the real game.
Eventually after getting hit with the puck many, many times he comes to the game wearing a fiberglass mask. He is told he can’t wear it but eventually after suffering another injury he says he’s wearing it or else. He is teased at that and subsequent games but eventually people get used to it and realize it’s not being a coward to wear a mask, it’s smart.
My Thoughts
The book was interesting but as our family is not a sports family I had to explain what hockey was to my kids and what a puck was for. Once we got past that they found it very interesting. There is one part in the book that might be a tiny bit upsetting to sensitive kids. It’s where he is injured again and says he’s wearing the mask or else. There is talk of blood and you can see blood on the ice in the illustrations. But I just read that part quickly and moved on and my kids were fine.
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