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Frank Scalise

Eleven-year-old Sam Parker is a hockey player entering the first year in which body checking is allowed. His natural fear of getting hit is temporarily overshadowed by finding out his parents are getting divorced. Determined to keep them together by being a hockey superstar, Sam instead suffers a bone-crunching check from the school bully in his first game of the season. The resulting pain and fear brings out the worst in Sam as one difficulty after another piles on. Even his best friend, Jill, doesn't always seem to understand what he's going through. Sam has to learn how to get up after life knocks you down – both on and off the ice. Fall Down. Get up. Fall Down. Get up. Life is hockey. Hockey is Life.

Jerry Sciarrio

Books In Motion

Sam the Hockey Player

The Hardest Hit

Everything should be great for young hockey player Sam Parker. He has just turned twelve. He plays center on The Rockets, the team he’s been on since Mites. His best friend, Jill, is the goal tender. And he just had his birthday.

So why isn’t he happy?

It’s simple–because his parents are still getting a divorce.

The bombshell news that landed last fall has a daily impact on Sam. His life is changing–in more ways than just this–and he struggles to keep on top of everything. School, friends, shuttling between his house and his dad’s new apartment… it all seems too much. He feels like he’s double-shifting and doesn’t know if he’s coming or going.

So, Sam devises a plan to get his parents back together. All it will take is becoming a star player. What could go wrong?

A lot, it turns out.

Double Shifting

Sam was a born hockey player. Twelve-year-old Sam Parker has dealt with a lot over the past two seasons of hockey — a concussion, a bully, and a divorce. He has overcome all of those challenges, not to mention keeping his grades up at school. Plus, he and his best friend Jill have discovered they have feelings for each other. Things are going well for him. Then, his divorced parents both start dating again, which is weird and makes him a little angry for reasons he can’t entirely explain. The worst part might be Breck, the son of the woman his father is dating. Like Sam, Breck is a hockey player. When both of them try out for the same varsity squad, the competition is fierce. Even when the dust settles on tryouts, the rivalry between Sam and Breck runs through the entire season… and not just on the ice. Breck seems to be taking Sam’s place in his dad’s life and Sam doesn’t like that one bit. In hockey, line changes are simple — tired players get off the ice, new players go on. Sam learns that, in life, change is anything but simple… or easy. And the meaning of “family” isn’t always the same for everyone. Line Changes is the fourth and final peewee book in the Sam the Hockey Player series.

Line Changes

Sam the Hockey Player - The book series

Sam the Hockey Player - The book series

Sam the Hockey Player books in order

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