In the days of Roch's childhood, winters in the village of Ste. Justine were long. Life centered around school, church, and the hockey rink, and every boy's hero was Montreal Canadiens hockey legend Maurice Richard. Everyone wore Richard's number 9. They laced their skates like Richard. They even wore their hair like Richard. When Roch outgrows his cherished Canadiens sweater, his mother writes away for a new one. Much to Roch's horror, he is sent the blue and white sweater of the rival Toronto Maple Leafs, dreaded and hated foes to his beloved team. How can Roch face the other kids at the rink?

The Hockey Sweater is a Canadian children's classic, and we are very excited to be doing an anniversary edition. It will include lots of extras, including original material from the author and illustrator, stills from the animated film, letters and quotes from celebrities and more. The design will be updated and refreshed. This will be a wonderful collector's edition for those who know the book, and a wonderful introduction to those who don't.

ROCH CARRIER, who studied at the Universite de Montreal and completed a doctorate in Paris at the Sorbonne, is a novelist, playwright and children's author, and past winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. Formerly the director of the Canada Council for the Arts and the National Librarian of Canada, Carrier is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an Officer of the Order of Canada, and he holds many honorary doctorates. A quote from Carrier’s Canadian children's classic The Hockey Sweater could be found until recently on the back of Canada’s five-dollar bill. Carrier lives in Montreal.

DONALD WINKLER was born in Winnipeg in 1940, graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1961, and did graduate study as a Woodrow Wilson Scholar at the Yale School of Drama. From 1967 to 1995 he was a film director and writer at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, and, since the 1980s, has been a translator of Quebec literature: in 1994, 2011 and 2013 he won the Governor General’s Award for French to English translation, and has been a finalist for the prize on two other occasions.

Roch Carrier's profile page

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One of BookRiot's 50 Must-Read Canadian Children’s and YA Books

PRAISE FOR The Hockey Sweater:

"Stephen Harper said the book ‘still touches the hearts of Canadian hockey fans, young and old.’ . . . Justin Trudeau, who would become Prime Minister, called it ‘an iconic depiction of a truly Canadian experience.’” --Roy Macgregor, Globe and Mail
"It's a classic. . . . You can't really be a Canadian and not read it. It's become part of our cultural lexicon." --Canadian Children's Book News

". . . not only sweet and funny, but a wise parable about Quebec and English Canada." --Toronto Star

". . . Roch Carrier's timeless book about a boy's catalogue snafu resonated across this hockey-mad country--because who didn't understand the horror of receiving the enemy's hockey sweater in the mail?" --Faceoff.com

“[A] true-life parable woven so deeply into the national fabric that it’s hard to conceive of a time when it wasn’t there.” --Toronto Sun