★"A story of grief, forgiveness, healing, and friendship, this book will skate into readers' hearts. Would make a fantastic read-aloud for classrooms and a great pick for book club discussions." - School Library Journal (SLJ), starred review
When Wolfgang's father dies, everything changes.
Wolfie and his mother move to Calgary to stay with his grandfather, and Wolfie starts at a new school. Consumed by sadness, his mother stops speaking and rarely comes out of her bedroom. While he tries to adjust to his new life, Wolfie gets to know his grandpa and makes a friend, Jimmy, who introduces him to hockey. Though he misses his father terribly, Wolfgang finds moments of happiness, like when his mom finally emerges from her grief to rejoin the world, and when his grandpa teaches him how to skate. He even gets good enough to join Jimmy's hockey team!
What haunts Wolfgang, though, is that no one will tell him how his father died...until one day he overhears his mom and grandpa say that his father took his own life. Now Wolfie has even more weight to bear-and so many questions. But even in the most difficult times, friendship, hope and hockey keep Wolfie going.
The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.
Key Selling Points
• After Wolfgang's father dies, he and his mother move in with his grandfather in Calgary, and Wolfie deals with the ebbs and flows of life during grief, finding moments of joy in playing hockey with his new friend Jimmy.
• While this book takes on difficult topics such as the death of a parent, suicide, and alcoholism, as well as family secrets, it also shows how the love of family and friends can carry us through the difficult times, and how sports can bring release from even the darkest moments.
• The story is set between 1985 and 1986 and includes the Calgary Flames' unexpected defeat of Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers during the playoffs.
• Telling the story through Wolfgang's letters to his father (and later, diary entries) gives the book a sense of time's passage and the wave-like nature of grief, as well as how life goes on and one can find happiness even amid terrible loss.
• Author Gregor Craigie himself lost his father at a young age, which inspired him to tell this story.
• An author's note at the end will include some context for the grandfather's World War II memories, Gregor's personal memories and how he has included himself as a boy in the book, and a short discussion of suicide (including a crisis hotline number).
In this middle-grade novel, Wolfgang and his mother move in with his grandfather in the wake of his father's death, and Wolfie's new friend Jimmy helps him find solace through hockey. But Wolfgang can't stop wondering why his father's cause of death is such a secret.
Gregor Craigie is a father, writer and journalist. He wakes up at three forty-five every weekday morning to talk on CBC Radio in Victoria, British Columbia. Despite the early hours, Gregor loves his job because he gets to ask questions and write for a living. Before his current job at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he worked for the BBC World Service in London and traveled to several different countries, reporting on various issues. Gregor has written several fiction and nonfiction books for adults and children. For Wolfie, hockey isn't just a game-it's a lifeline.
★ "A story of grief, forgiveness, healing, and friendship, this book will skate into readers' hearts. This is a raw, painfully honest exploration of life after a parent dies. The family's grieving process reads realistic and is not depicted as an arc but as a journey. Supportive friends remind [Wolfgang] and readers that there is still much to be happy about during painful times, which is both hopeful and accurate. This would make a fantastic read-aloud for classrooms and a great pick for book club discussions. A necessary purchase for upper elementary and middle school collections."
