Goodnight, Hockey Fans

Written by Andrew Larsen

Illustrated by Jacqui Lee

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-105-5

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

October 2017

Older readers will recognize the title as the sign-off of radio and TV broadcaster Foster Hewitt after calling a hockey game for Hockey Night in Canada.  They may even recognize the setting, time and place, from their mid-1950s to early-1960s home, with its antennaed television and transistor radio.  But every child, then and now, who dreams of hockey glory will feel this story.

Though the family–mom, dad, son, dog and cat–are enjoying watching television, it's time for the child to go to bed.  He's a little apprehensive, not knowing if he'll be able to fall asleep, especially amidst the silence that seems to roar.

From Goodnight, Hockey Fans 

by Andrew Larsen 

illus. by Jacqui Lee

He shines his flashlight on his hockey poster, pennant and puck trophy and finally settles on calming himself with his dad's old transistor radio.  When he hears the familiar "Welcome back, hockey fans from coast to coast" he knows he has found his ticket to dreamland.

From Goodnight, Hockey Fans 

by Andrew Larsen 

illus. by Jacqui Lee

And dream he does. First it's just the hockey game that might be being watched on TV, but soon the announcement of a boy skating onto the ice and going after the puck is trumpeted.  There is that culminating goal and cheers that fade into the nighttime quiet, but it's not really over until mom and dad head to bed and hear the iconic sign-off from their son's concealed radio:  "Goodnight, hockey fans from coast to coast."

From Goodnight, Hockey Fans 

by Andrew Larsen 

illus. by Jacqui Lee

What a delightful way to celebrate hockey in Canada and to honour Foster Hewitt, the voice of Canadian hockey! By melding the broadcast of a hockey game, complete with the broadcaster's trademark sayings, with a boy's imaginative dreams, everyone is transported to a dreamland of historic play on the ice.  Andrew Larsen who can't possibly be old enough to remember when Foster Hewitt's broadcasts took place on radio and TV captures the wonder of the game and the dream of children nation-wide to play with their hockey heroes and score a winning goal.   The playfulness that Andrew Larsen embeds in his books (see Dingus, Kids Can Press, 2017; Charlie's Dirt Day, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2015; and See You Next Year, Owlkids Books, 2015) comes through loud and clear, even in the quiet of a dreaming child's bedroom.

That same playfulness is evoked in Jacqui Lee's retro-style illustrations. From the colours she selects, very reminiscent of a 1950s paint palette, to the uniforms of the hockey players, Jacqui Lee's artwork blends well with Andrew Larsen's story's setting.  The art, like the text, is of a time when Foster Hewitt was everything to hockey in Canada, including the soothing voice of dreams and comfortable slumber.