Rocket Blues
About
Summary:
Don’t feel sorry for Bryan (The Rocket) Rockwood. He doesn’t want you to, even though he and his mom struggle to make ends meet, and lives in the roughest part of town with gangs and street people making it dangerous to even walk around; and then there’s worrying about his best friend Maddy, who’s forced to stay with her mom’s cruel boyfriend; and what about the pressure of maintaining his reputation at school – a reputation that depends on him being a superstar hockey player.
Rocket doesn’t feel sorry for himself because he is too focused on his dream – he’s going to play in the NHL. No one takes him seriously because he’s not the biggest kid in the world – but Bryan sees things differently. He’s a centre for the Oakmont Huskies, the best AAA team in the city; he had the most points in the league last season; they won the championship even; and while things are tough at home, he can always escape at school, where he’s part of the hockey crowd. No one dares mess with him there.
So what can go wrong?
How about the Huskies new coach deciding that brawn is better than brains? He wants big players, not high skill players like Rocket. Then the unthinkable happens – Rocket is cut from the Huskies. Overnight, he has to deal with all the problems he’s been ignoring for years: his reputation at school, the gangs, the poverty – and most of all, whether his hockey dream is actually nothing more than a pipe dream.
Rocket doesn’t want to quit. But what do you do when everything seems stacked against you?
Rocket Blues, winner of the Rocky Mountain Book Award, and nominated for the Silver Birch, the MYRCA, the Snow Willow, and the Red Cedar awards.