Roch Carrier and The Hockey Sweater

Well, my favourite event so far has to be Roch Carrier reading The Hockey Sweater to a roomful of the youngest festival attendees at the Millennium Library this afternoon.

He had the children cheering for the Habs as he read the story; Carrier didn’t so much read the story as he did perform it. He made that boy who believed he was Rocket Richard, shamefully forced to wear the Toronto Maple Leafs jersey, come to life. We were with him as he helplessly pulled on the blue and white jersey, as he broke his hockey stick out of frustration and as he prayed for a 1,000 moths to come and eat the jersey.

There were many mouths agape this afternoon - mine included. Carrier has probably read this book hundreds of times, but he read it with such enthusiasm and authenticity I think we all felt like it was the first time. Even my ten-month old son – who never sits still – was enthralled.

After the reading Carrier took questions and regaled his audience with tales of his meetings with Maurice Richard.

Every time I pull out a five-dollar bill to get that latte at Starbucks I will think warmly of the afternoon I heard Roch Carrier perform The Hockey Sweater. I was so swept up in the whole thing I might have grabbed whatever hockey-related books I could find on the shelves and had them signed by Roch Carrier.