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 phone, the Falcons'captain tries to get her kicked off the team, and her mother wants Leigh to go to a dance recital on the same night as the finals. When the pressure becomes too intense, Leigh has to face some hard decisions.
Hat Trick is a suspenseful, action-packed story about a young woman who learns the price of living a double life--the hard way. [Fry Reading Level - 4.2

Award-winning author JACQUELINE GUEST is the author of numerous Lorimer novels, including the Arthur Ellis Award nominee Wild Ride and A Goal in Sight, which was shortlisted for a Golden Eagle Children's Choice Book Award. Many of her novels have also been Canadian Children's Centre Our Choice selections including the SideStreets novel At Risk, and the Sports Stories novels Hat Trick, Free Throw, and Soccer Star. Jacqueline Guest lives in Bragg Creek, Alberta.

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• Winner, Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice Selection

Hat Trick certainly covers many of the problems and challenges of being a young teen in Canada today: separated parents, conflicting cultural traditions, and trying to follow her own love of hockey in a world where boys are accepted, and girls are not. The theme explores the familiar struggle for a young girl to find identity and confirmation... the uphill struggle for self-confidence, self-knowledge, and acceptance of her skills and limitations are well described.Recommended - ***/4

CM: Canadian Review of Materials