How did the Kenora Thistles become, against all odds, the smallest team and the smallest town ever to win the Stanley Cup?

This famously scrappy hockey team was founded in the rough and tumble town of Kenora, Ontario, at the end of the 19th century. A decade later, playing far away from home, in Montreal, the fiery teenagers whom the Montreal Star d …

Mason's basketball team, the Cabbagetown Raptors, is going co-ed after seven successful seasons. He's pretty open-minded about the change, especially after he meets Cindy, a really top-notch player. The other guys aren't so sure.
Before long everyone has taken sides, and the Raptors' chances of making the national finals seem to fade into oblivio …

When Debbie is on the basketball court she feels free and alive. But while she's a good player she's also an aggressive one, and rough tactics get her in trouble more than once.
Off the court she's different from other girls, a foster child without "real" parents of her own. When Debbie learns she's going to be adopted, her world is turned upside …

Les Lewchuck is a rink rat--he loves hanging around his neighbourhood park in East End Toronto, playing hockey whenever and with whom ever he can. He's keen to hit the ice, then, when he finally gets to join a real team, the Metro Cats.
He soon finds, however, that Roddy and Lenny Smith, a couple of tough, bullying brothers, run the team. When Le …

Aiden is the roughest player on his Calgary hockey team, as likely to be in the penalty box as on the ice.
When he hits another player after a game, however, he's charged with assault and sentenced to one hundred hours of community service. He's bored and annoyed when he's forced to help Eric, a blind player with the Calgary Seeing Eye Dogs. In t …

Fast-paced sports action novels that get kids reading.

Tori is staying with family near Toronto while her parents deal with troubles back home. To keep a sense of normalcy, this talented hockey player joins the Rangers -- the worst team in the league. The only girl on her team, Tori, befriends a girl on another team and their teammates resent this a …

Kallana wears the wildest clothes of anyone at her suburban Calgary junior high school. Still, it seems it's not enough to get the attention of her freelance photographer father or her non-kid-friendly mother.
When her dad signs her up for the basketball team after Kallana is sent home from school for wearing "provocative" clothes, she's mortifie …

Crazy Canucks recounts the trials and triumphs off the Canadian men's alpine ski team of the 1970s and early 1980s. Eric Zweig offers a behind-the-scenes look at this innovative team that dared to take risks other skiers were too afraid of. The team rose from obscurity to prominence on the European and North American ski circuits with Olympic medal …

He's the face of the Calgary Flames, but there's much more to Jarome Iginla's story than just being the first black captain of an NHL team. He's also renowned for his social commitment and generosity off the ice.
Jarome (nicknamed Iggy) grew up in a single-parent household in St. Albert, Alberta. It was thanks to support of his grandparents that he …

Alecia is about to be adopted by a new stepfather, her soccer team, the Burrards, is preparing for the championship game, and a cute new boy has arrived on the scene. But there are even more changes on the horizon. The team's game is suffering as the players get distracted by other interests. If the Burrards are to make it to the finals, they must …

Michael Strike is captain of both the school soccer and chess teams. He's got his eye on fellow soccer player and overachiever Miriah, the founder of the youth organization War Orphans of the World. Miriah is quick to befriend a new student, Zahir Jamiat, who has recently moved from the Middle East, but Michael sees the newcomer as a rival. When M …

Noah Brusso was small in size, but feisty. After winning a bare-knuckle boxing tournament at age ten, he found his way out of poverty. Noah changed his name to Tommy Burns, a tough Irish fighting name, and boxed his way to the top. In 1906, he won both the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship and the fame he longed for. At a time when few other bo …

The Brunswick Valley School soccer team are not just bad -- they're terrible. They haven't won a game all season and they bicker endlessly amongst themselves. They're such a disaster that their coach resigns in disgust. When, by an administrative anomaly, they qualify for the season playoffs, the only person they can find to act as coach is their f …

Birch Hill Swim Club has a new coach and the team's star swimmer, eighth-grader Lasha Boyko, couldn't be more excited. Even though the lanky swimmer comes from an immigrant Ukrainian family of modest means, she dreams big. The coach has a track record of producing Olympians and Lasha wants to be her next star. The hitch is that she's one of the fie …

Alecia's soccer team, the Vancouver Burrards, is the one stable thing in her life. Everything else is new or changing: a new school, a new stepfather.

When Anne, Alecia's friend and the Burrards' best player, decides to quit playing, Alecia decides to fight to keep the team together. She soon learns, however, that life's hardest matches are fought o …

Alecia's Vancouver soccer team, the Burrards, are a good, hard-fighting squad--her teammates are her friends and her coach is her loving step-dad.
When Lexi, a new kid, joins the team, her bad attitude makes things fall apart fast. Alecia decides to find out what makes Lexi so difficult, and to hold the team together, on the field and off.
Offsid …

Fourteen-year-old Daisy Howson is a take-charge kind of girl, maybe even something of a control freak. She means well--she just wants everything to run smoothly, especially on her relay team. But when someone tries to sabotage the boys' relay team Daisy suspects her own team may be involved. Can she sort it all out and fix everything up again befor …

Toby's always had a weight issues, thanks in part to the free food his team gets from his friend Maddie's dad's restaurant and their soccer team's sponsor, Vinnie's. But Vinnie's sponsorship also provides the kids with team shirts, equipment, even cleats for some of the players. So when a city-wide ban is placed on sponsorship of teams by companies …

Jeff is not impressed when his family moves from Toronto to small-town Nova Scotia. He doesn't know anyone and there isn't much to do--until he joins his new school's basketball team.
Jeff is fast on the court and has a sharp jump shot, and soon he's hanging out with with his new teammates. Some of them are pretty rough, though, and when they sta …

Lizzie's just been named captain of the soccer team -- the boys' soccer team -- but some of her teammates aren't playing nice. Will it be boys vs. girls forever, or can Lizzie think of a way to settle the score, once and for all?

Lizzie's Soccer Showdown is the story of a strong young woman who, when faced with prejudice, reacts with grace under pre …

How did the son of Irish immigrants outrow blueblood scullers from Oxford and Cambridge to become one of the most famous athletes of his time? Award-winning author Wendy A. Lewis recounts the compelling story of the "Boy in Blue," from his childhood on the Toronto Islands, where he rowed himself to school on the mainland every day, to laurels won a …

Lionel Conacher excelled at football, hockey, baseball, boxing, wrestling, and lacrosse. He taught himself how to play and he worked hard, and it paid off. He supported his struggling family, never giving up or letting people down. He was given the nickname Big Train because he was unstoppable on the football field when he ran through the oppositio …

Until a mere generation ago, black football players were largely unproven as quarterbacks since they were excluded from a position that demanded strategic thinking instead of brute force. So, talented players headed north, rising to stardom in Canada. John Danakas profiles the pioneering athletes who donned new team colours and changed their sport. …

All C.J. has ever wanted is to play basketball--one day pro basketball. Already in grade nine she's the captain of her high school team in Naskup, British Columbia.
But her success comes at a price: her teammate Debi can't accept someone so young as captain, and is making C.J.'s life as difficult as possible. To make matters much worse, one morni …

The Cape Breton Grizzly Bears are a bad news basketball team--they haven't won a single game all season. But the rules say a team from their region has to play in the Nova Scotia Invitational Tournament in Halifax, and they're it.
Their "star" player is the harebrained Chip Carson, whose constant scheming and practical jokes keep his coach and te …

Matthew Eagletail can't wait until his online friend John Salton flies from San Francisco to Bragg Creek, Alberta for a summer visit. John is almost as big a basketball fan as Matt is, and dreams of being the first coach in the NBA to use a wheelchair.
When Matt's sister Jazz tells them about the upcoming Rocky Mountain Summer Basketball League i …

When Jeff Lang lands in Halifax for summer basketball camp, he's ready for red-hot, pumped-up, on-court action. Above all he wants to impress the coaches and make the all-star team.
Soon, however, he's confronted with bizarre roommates, science nerds, and tough rivals determined block him hard at every turn. Struggling to the top proves much toug …

It should be the best week of Jay's life: he's attending a Basketball Nova Scotia Summer Camp and rooming in a real university dorm with his best friend, Mike. But then Mike's older brother, Chad, turns out to be less than the coach Jay expected and the brother Mike had always known. Luckily for Jay, a new teammate and friend has figured out how to …

The Brunswick Valley kids are back, and this time they're taking it on the road. In order to secure the top spot in the league, the gang is playing a series of away-games at schools around the province. With their teenage coach, Ice, at the wheel of the van, victory, hilarity, and complications are sure to follow! [Fry Reading Level - 5.0

Glen and Jacob are best friends and linemates until a new hotshot, Danny, joins their Toronto soccer team.
Glen thinks Danny is cool, and together they get deeper and deeper in trouble. Jacob tries to warn his old friend that he's headed for disaster, but Danny's bad attitude threatens to take the whole team down.
Heads Up! is a story about the h …

Jay is determined to make his name by climbing a tough rock face known as "The Wall" -- solo. No partner, no ropes, no equipment. Little does Jay suspect that it's his own life that will one day hang in the balance.
In this exciting rock-climbing adventure, Kellerhals-Stewart looks at the desire to break barriers and the questionable role of the m …

Fast-paced sports action novels that get kids reading.

Jake and his two best friends play road hockey together and are members of the same league team. But some personal rivalries and interference from Jake's three all-too-supportive grandfathers start to create tension among the players. The kids must resolve their differences and learn to work to …

For the first time, Kaleigh is playing on an all-girls hockey team. Never a "girlygirl," she misses her former teammates, has trouble following the different rules of girls' hockey, and gets frustrated when her fellow players get distracted from their game. That is, until Shane comes along. Soon the attention of this older boy is taking up too much …

Leigh Aberdeen is one of the top players on her Alberta hockey team, the Falcons. But as a Métis and the only girl on the team she's different--and not everyone is happy about that.
To top it off, she doesn't think her mother wants her to play hockey, so Leigh hasn't told her about the Falcons. Soon she's getting threatening messages on the phon …

Most people recognize hockey superstar Bobby Clarke as the tough guy with the toothless grin. This fast-paced and energetic new book tells the story of Clarke's fights on and off the ice -- not with rival hockey players, but with diabetes. Long-time sports editor Nicole Mortillaro examines how Bobby was almost shunned from the league because of the …

For Vicky Parker, life has never been better. Despite mom's new boyfriend (ew!), Vicky and best friends Parm and Marjan seem to be shoo-ins for the soccer team and the chance to play in the tournament — in England! But friendships turn into rivalries as the pressures of tryouts get to be too much, and a charming grade twelve boy takes an interest …

Cody Powell has graduated from playing pick-up hockey on the streets of Winnipeg to skating with his community club team, the Transcona Sharks. Coach Brackett is impressed with Cody's speed and stickhandling ability, and promotes him to the team's first line.
Unfortunately, Cody takes Stu, Coach Brackett's son's, spot. Cody is worried that coach …