WILD POND HOCKEY

An anthropomorphic take on a possible origin of hockey.

On a frozen Canadian pond, two ravens chip away at a block of ice. Startled by a pack of wolves, they fly away, leaving the wolves to discover the slippery pond on their own. Finding their way on the slippery surface, the wolves start their own game, pushing the ice to one another using muzzles and paws. Before long the game becomes animated, and the wolves chase one another. Eventually the ice chunk is too small for wolves’ paws and they leave, so the ravens resume their game using twigs as sticks. Domm’s straightforward text depicts these animals’ antics as part of this icy play, positing that perhaps hockey was invented by these animals. The inspiration for this tale seems to have been the fact that both ravens and wolves are playful, elucidated in the spare backmatter (though without sources). Domm’s blunt juxtaposition of apparently digitally collaged elements is often jarring, with an often disorienting flattening of perspective. The illustrations represent both wolves and ravens realistically, with no anthropomorphization of expressions or postures. They neither expand upon the text nor offer visual details to entice readers to look more closely. Nicholas Oldland’s Hockey in the Wild (2020) is a far more entertaining spin on hockey-playing animals.

A rather dry story with disappointing illustrations ultimately leaves readers unsatisfied.