Jazz up your library with these five titles

Delightful tales evoke nostalgia for a national pastime

I’m not a skater. By the time I strapped on skates as an adult it was clear that I would never shine on the ice.

But I love to watch people skate — especially people who move with grace and speed, and who in their youth took to the ice like ducks to water.

Ontario’s Paul Harbridge captures that elegance in his text for When the Moon Comes, published by Tundra Books, and the paintings by Matt James perfectly complement this nostalgic paean to Canadian winters and the pleasures a rural pond can offer young hockey players.

Dedicated to Harbridge’s father, “who lived the story,” it tells of farm kids eager to test the ice on a pond in the woods. Arthur, one of the boys, is de facto leader.

“We have to wait for the moon,” he tells his impatient friends. When they worry about a heavy snowfall, he sets their minds at rest: “It’s OK. Our ice is waiting for us under the snow.”

They trust his judgment, and when it’s time, they leave their respective farm homes and trudge through the snow, hockey sticks and shovel in hand. They take turns clearing the ice, play their game until one of them shoots too hard and the puck “flies underneath the powdery snow.” Then they gather around the fire they’ve built, melt snow to make tea, and eat “toasty sandwiches” until it’s time for the trek home.

This book could not be more Canadian. Just as Roch Carrier and Sheldon Cohen in 1979 created a classic with The Hockey Sweater, so Harbridge and James this year have added a worthy companion volume. For all ages.

Those kids tramping home after expending their energy on the ice might have welcomed a chance to stay in hockey mode with a story or two before bedtime. Toronto’s Meg Braithwaite has just the thing for them: Her book 5-Minute Hockey Stories, illustrated by Nick Craine, opens with a story about a young P.K. Subban, skating on the ice at Nathan Phillips Square with his father at night, and how those memories stayed with him even when he grew up and became an NHL defenceman.

All 12 stories are based on real events, with “certain imagined elements” in the retelling; they include fun facts about the Stanley Cup, an explanation of how the Zamboni works, a story about Mario Lemieux’s mom turning her living room floor into a skating rink, and an account of the six-hour NHL game played at the Montreal Forum in 1936. Each story can be read aloud in about five minutes, and Craine’s plentiful illustrations will hold the interest of even the youngest listener. Best for ages five to 12.

Lines, by Korea’s Suzy Lee, is a wordless picture book that not only celebrates the joys of drawing lines on paper but also of heading out on the ice and carving lines, both straight and flowery, with skates.

Illustrated in limited colour, our young figure skater does an impressive job of making her mark on the ice, until she stumbles after a jump and ends up in a crumpled heap. A couple of pages later and the artist has decided our skater deserves another chance; she’s sitting on the ice, her red tuque beside her, and eventually she’s joined by other kids — and a dog! Aimed at four to eight, but really for all ages.