A clever introduction to the game-changing career of profession hockey goalie Jacques Plante.Little Jacques hasn't got a puck, so he plays summer hockey with a ball. "Hey, that's not hockey!" He plays goal with a stump of a tree, his pads are potato sacks and wooden pads. "Hey, that's not hockey!" Jacques doesn't care, he just wants to play. But when readers see him don the shirt of the Montreal Canadiens, they (or at least their adult caregivers) realize this is not just any feel-good tale, but the story of Jacques Plante, such a force in the net that he won best goalie honors time and again. Jacques was ever the rebel, going his own way. Hockey players are notorious for staying on the ice through injuries, and before Plante, goalies got the worst of it. Plante fashioned a mask out of fiberglass to prevent facial injuries. At first he is booed for being a weenie"Hey, that's not hockey!"but Poulin presents him as a man with a common-sensical survival instinct who could still beat just about any team even with a mask on. Girard's illustrations are packed with action and give a sense of the mayhem on ice. His cast of players and coaches is an all-white one.The best athletes play with their smarts as well as their talent, and that point shines in this testament to one of hockey's greatest, and brainiest, players. (Picture book. 6-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Jacques Plante played hockey his own way. As a child, he used a tennis ball as a puck, a tree root made into a stick, and goalie pads fashioned from potato sacks and wood slats. Plante played pro hockey for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1950s, when goalies had no face-protection gear. After suffering multiple cuts and fractures, he took a fiberglass face mask to practice. Though his coach refused to let him wear it in a game, after his fifth broken nose, Plante refused to finish the game without his mask. He played, they won, and the rest is hockey-equipment history. Poulin emphasizes Plante's inventive approach to his sport into an appealing picture-book text that shows him growing from three-year-old hockey lover to a pro player hoisting the Stanley Cup. Big, bold, and colorful, the illustrations set the period scenes effectively, while clearly expressing the characters' emotions. The latest in a surge of picture books for young hockey fans, this volume offers a memorable introduction to a legendary, innovative hockey player.--Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2018 Booklist