McDonald’s Happy Meal Books – First Hockey Words

Bestselling children’s book author and illustrator Per-Henrik Gürth has created a colorful, lively tribute to hockey with this picture book for the youngest fans. The action-packed story follows a group of animals who take to the ice to play a rousing game of hockey. Highlighted on the pages in large type throughout the story are hockey vocabulary words and terms. The vocabulary ranges from the basics — such as team, net, shot — to more complex concepts — face-off, line change, penalty — and the author has cleverly used and defined each of them within the story. For example, on the two-page spread where the term power play appears, the illustration is of the two teams facing each other on the ice, five players on one side, four on the other, and the text reads, “It’s five against four — a power play!” Every spread has at least one word or term, though some have more, and on two of the pages the words simply label things in the illustrations.

This terrific book could be used three different ways, within language arts as well as physical education. The fun, dramatic story can stand alone as a great read, with pre-readers easily able to use the context of the simple artwork to interpret the language, while the highlighted words and terms offer wonderful vocabulary enhancement for beginning readers. And the content provides an excellent basic tutorial on how to play hockey, and on team sports in general.