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Chasing A Star by Norma Charles (Ronsdale Press $10.95)
It's late August, 1951, and for 12-year-old Sophie LeGrange life is the movie Annie Get Your Gun, pink and blue autograph books-may your life always be as rosy as this page-a new school, bossy, wimpled teacher-nuns, gym bloomers, ginger ale, Rocket Richard, roller skates, Brylcreem jingles, Star Girl comics, and her large comfortable working-class family.
Eclipsing all this, though, is Sophie's obsession with figure skating sensation Barbara Ann Scott.
In Chasing A Star, Norma Charles recalls the equally passionate national fervor for Canada's first-and only-gold medal Olympic winner in women's figure skating. Known as "Canada's Sweetheart"; from her professional days touring with the Hollywood Ice Review, the "Gretzky of 1948,"; Barbara Ann Scott, was inducted into Canada's Olympic Hall of Fame and received the Order of Canada.
More thrilling to young Sophie, though, is her much-coveted Reliable Toy Company Barbara Ann Scott doll that her stylish, sophisticated aunts have brought from Montreal. Sophie is in heaven when she learns the Hollywood Ice Review is coming to town and Barbara Ann Scott will be performing right in her hometown of New Westminster!
But Maman says tickets are much too expensive, especially after the costs to send Sophie to an all-girls academy. Maman worries the local high school is too rough. The neighbourhood isn't what it used to be. A motorcycle gang has even moved in. Still, Sophie is very determined to at least get an autograph.
Badgering her older brother Joseph into taking her on his new motorbike to the arena where he plays hockey, Sophie has high hopes of spotting her heroine at early morning practice when the ice is still the pristine and perfectly smooth surface Scott requires for her daredevil leaps.
Sophie finds a silver bracelet with the initials BAS. One of her aunts, who went to school with Barbara Ann Scott, agrees to intervene and suddenly Sophie is meeting her idol. Maman is being recruited to play the organ for the Review. Even Joseph is touted as a possible fill-in for one of the male skaters.
But what's going on between
Sophie's aunt and Scott's enigmatic skating partner, the dashing Ricardo Montaine? And that motorcycle gang? Sophie's sure they're coercing Joseph to join them and, much, much worse, mounting a heinous plan to kidnap Canada's Sweetheart.
Chasing A Star features photographs contributed by Scott as well as an appendix of career highlights.
Norma Charles grew up in French-speaking Maillardville, attended school in New Westminster, skated at Queen's Park Arena and got to see Scott in the famous Hollywood Ice Review.
This is the third young adult novel in Norma Charles' Sophie series of adventures. 978-1-55380-077-4
[BCBW 2010]
Eclipsing all this, though, is Sophie's obsession with figure skating sensation Barbara Ann Scott.
In Chasing A Star, Norma Charles recalls the equally passionate national fervor for Canada's first-and only-gold medal Olympic winner in women's figure skating. Known as "Canada's Sweetheart"; from her professional days touring with the Hollywood Ice Review, the "Gretzky of 1948,"; Barbara Ann Scott, was inducted into Canada's Olympic Hall of Fame and received the Order of Canada.
More thrilling to young Sophie, though, is her much-coveted Reliable Toy Company Barbara Ann Scott doll that her stylish, sophisticated aunts have brought from Montreal. Sophie is in heaven when she learns the Hollywood Ice Review is coming to town and Barbara Ann Scott will be performing right in her hometown of New Westminster!
But Maman says tickets are much too expensive, especially after the costs to send Sophie to an all-girls academy. Maman worries the local high school is too rough. The neighbourhood isn't what it used to be. A motorcycle gang has even moved in. Still, Sophie is very determined to at least get an autograph.
Badgering her older brother Joseph into taking her on his new motorbike to the arena where he plays hockey, Sophie has high hopes of spotting her heroine at early morning practice when the ice is still the pristine and perfectly smooth surface Scott requires for her daredevil leaps.
Sophie finds a silver bracelet with the initials BAS. One of her aunts, who went to school with Barbara Ann Scott, agrees to intervene and suddenly Sophie is meeting her idol. Maman is being recruited to play the organ for the Review. Even Joseph is touted as a possible fill-in for one of the male skaters.
But what's going on between
Sophie's aunt and Scott's enigmatic skating partner, the dashing Ricardo Montaine? And that motorcycle gang? Sophie's sure they're coercing Joseph to join them and, much, much worse, mounting a heinous plan to kidnap Canada's Sweetheart.
Chasing A Star features photographs contributed by Scott as well as an appendix of career highlights.
Norma Charles grew up in French-speaking Maillardville, attended school in New Westminster, skated at Queen's Park Arena and got to see Scott in the famous Hollywood Ice Review.
This is the third young adult novel in Norma Charles' Sophie series of adventures. 978-1-55380-077-4
[BCBW 2010]
Submitted on June 3, 2010 in By David.
