Per-Henrik Gürth’s Hockey Opposites is a delightfully cute and playful treatment of hockey for early readers. The book tells the story of a match between two teams made up of typical Gürthian critters such as bears, moose, raccoons, goats, and crocodiles. (The ref is a skunk.) Each spread demonstrates a set of opposites with an illustration of a moment from the game. For big versus small, for example, a huge bison faces off against a beaver.

Many of the opposites are simple and universal (e.g., up vs. down), though there are a few, such as on vs. off (the ice, that is), that have a special meaning in hockey and may require some explanation. Only one – defender vs. winger – is truly technical.

Gürth’s images, the style of which should be familiar to readers of other Gürth-illustrated books such as Canada 123 and Snowy Sports, are simple yet filled with detail and movement. Most importantly, the animal players exude lots of character. Kids will delight in this beastly hockey match while learning a thing or two about opposites