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list price: $21.95
edition:Paperback
also available: eBook
category: Sports & Recreation
published: Sep 2018
ISBN:9781770414457
publisher: ECW Press

Home Ice

Reflections of a Reluctant Hockey Mom

by Angie Abdou

tagged: hockey, women, personal memoirs, sports
Description

The author of the Canada Reads–nominated The Bone Cage tackles the ups and downs of amateur hockey, from a mother’s point of view

Over 570,000 people are registered in Hockey Canada and over 600,000 in Hockey USA. It’s a national obsession. But what does that really mean when your child wants to play on a team? As a former varsity athlete and university instructor teaching sport literature, novelist Angie Abdou is no stranger to sport obsession, but she finds herself conflicted when faced with the reality of the struggles, joys, and strains of having a child in amateur hockey. In Home Ice, with equal parts humour and anguish, Abdou charts a full season of life as an Atom-level hockey mom, from summer hockey camp to the end-of-season tournament. Her revealing stories and careful research on issues such as cost, gender bias, concussion, and family pressures offer a compellingly honest and complex insider’s view of parenting today’s young athlete in a competitive and high-pressure culture.

About the Author
Angie Abdou

Angie Abdou has a PhD from the University of Calgary and is a Professor of Creative Writing at Athabasca University. Her first novel, The Bone Cage (NeWest Press), was a finalist in CBC's Canada Reads competition. She is also the author of Between and In Case I Go (both from Arsenal Pulp Press), The Canterbury Trail (Brindle & Glass), Anything Boys Can Do (Thistledown Press), and the memoir Home Ice (ECW Press). She lives in Fernie, BC.

Contributor Notes

Angie Abdou is the author of five novels, including, most recently, In Case I Go, a finalist in the fiction category of the Banff Mountain Book Award, as well as named a best book of 2017 on lists by CBC Books and Rogers Writers’ Trust. The Bone Cage was a CBC Canada Reads finalist, defended by NHL star Georges Laraque, and was awarded the 2011–12 MacEwan Book of the Year shortly after. Her novel Between was named a Best of 2014 book by PRISM Magazine, 49th Shelf, and The Vancouver Sun. Angie is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Athabasca University.

Editorial Review

“The author brings a novelist’s eye to the story, telling it in first-person present tense; with its sharp characterizations and dialogue in place of autobiographical exposition, the book is a first-rate memoir and a fine example of narrative nonfiction. It's also a must-read for parents with youngsters who play organized sports.” — Booklist Starred Review

“This is a lively, honestly written account of parenting that will resonate with readers who are fully involved in their children's sports.” — Publishers Weekly

“This immersive memoir brings together the personal and a good dollop of research in sports psychology. Abdou writes with uncommon frankness about the raw moments of hockey momdom and her personal life.” — Toronto Star

“A beautifully written and wise look at the troubling culture surrounding amateur sports through the eyes of a conflicted hockey mom. Home Ice reminds us ‘the best lessons we take from hockey have nothing to do with winning.” — Erica Ehm, Creator and Publisher of YummyMummyClub.ca

“Angie Abdou cracks open the world of the hockey mom with her distinctive, wry humour. Not only does she explore the winner-take-all hockey culture, she confronts her own place in it and the price it exacts on her family and her marriage. Brave and refreshingly candid, Angie delves into issues many of us grapple with but don't dare voice.” — Jan Redford, author of End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage, and Motherhood

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