Ice skating. Hockey. Skiing. Grab a cozy chair and a warm drink, then settle in for some good old-fashioned winter sports competition. You don’t have to be a winter athlete to thoroughly enjoy the hilarity and/or drama you’ll find among these winter picks. Sometimes the competition is more than you bargained for, but just as these athletes learned, the only way to win is by toughing it out.
Ice Skating
Breaking the Ice by Gail Nall
Cute story about a figure skater who must face the consequences of arguing with a judge after a competition. Her coach drops her and her skating facility bans her. The only facility that will take her has a reputation for being the worst in the state. She’s going to have to make the best of a bad situation.
Sugar and Ice by Kate Messner
After Claire lands a difficult double toe loop jump at a small skating show, she’s offered a scholarship to train with an elite coach. She’s excited but unprepared for the flashy, cutthroat world of figure skating competitions. While Claire deals with sabotage directed at her, she tries to keep up, but all the turmoil is affecting her skating. Is this really what she wants?
Being Sloane Jacobs by Lauren Morrill
Sloane Emily Jacobs is a figure skater. Sloane Devon Jacobs is a hockey player. Both are attending respective sports camps in Montreal. While staying at the same hotel, they discover they share the same name and decide to switch places. They have 8 weeks to fool everyone, including their new crushes, and become an elite athlete in a totally new sport. Cute romance for 7thand 8thgraders.
Hockey
Checked by Cynthia Kadohata
Conor is an exceptional hockey player. He’s obsessed with it. He lives for it. The only thing he loves more than hockey is his doberman, Sinbad. When Sinbad gets diagnosed with cancer, Conor must figure out how to continue his expensive hockey training and get the money needed to save his dog.
Field Trip by Gary Paulsen
Ben loves hockey more than anything. When he’s invited to tryout for a spot at an elite hockey school, nothing will stop him from going, including his eccentric house-flipping dad who could care less about his hockey dreams. When his dad decides to catch up with his classmates on a field trip, Ben plots a way to divert the van to the hockey school.
Kate’s Really Good at Hockey by Christina Frey
When Kate gets accepted to an elite hockey camp, her mother arranges for her to stay with her grandmother who lives close by. At first Kate is upset with this decision since she barely knows her grandmother. Then she unexpectedly learns that her grandmother was once an elite hockey player herself who had to pretend to be a boy to play. Graphic novel format.
The Chicken Doesn’t Skate by Gordon Korman
Place a writing nerd, science nerd, hockey player, and animal lover in the same classroom and you’ll get a hilarious story about a newly hatched chick intended for a science project becoming the mascot and good luck charm for a losing hockey team. Absurdly fun.
Skiing/Snowboarding
Golden Girl by Mari Mancusi
When Olympics-bound Alex returns to her elite boarding school after a dubious snowboarding accident, her skills are nowhere what they should be. She finds refuge in her new friendship with a public-school boy who sneaks onto the slopes at night to get free practice time. She finds herself questioning if snowboarding is still her dream, and why her best friend wants nothing to do with her.
Spy Ski School by Stuart Gibbs
While spying on a suspicious Chinese businessman in Colorado, Ben and Erica enroll in ski school with his daughter to gain intel. Things are going great until Ben’s best friend, Mike shows up. Mike knows nothing about Ben’s spy gig AND he’s a lady’s man. No sooner has Ben charmed Jessica, she’s all gaga for Mike. How’s Ben supposed to do his job with Mike around?
CHATTERING LIBRARIAN 