Ice Warrior

Rob has to move to Minnesota when his mother gets remarried, and he feels like a loser in his new town, but when his macho father visits, he tries to make him proud and learns an important lesson about winning.

Grade 6-8-- After his parent's divorce and his mother's remarriage, Rob Marshall finds himself in the strange environment of northern Minnesota after spending his life on the California coast. He tries to use sports as a way to fit in, but he feels that his lack of experience at games like hockey makes him unpopular with his new classmates. It's only after discovering the fast and perilous sport of iceboating that Rob feels he belongs. Unfortunately, his highly competitive, macho-jerk father is a constant unseen presence, as Rob tries to follow his directives, sent by letters. By the novel's end, Rob has begun to have second thoughts about the wisdom of his father's attitudes toward life. Being your own person is the theme here, but this sometimes overstated message does not get in the way of the fine descriptions of iceboating at dusk or repairing a boat in a shed warmed by a wood-burning stove. Riddell's ability to invoke these scenes frequently and precisely makes this a worthwhile novel. --Todd Morning, Schaumburg Township Public Library, IL
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