Lake Placid Miracle: When U.S. Hockey Stunned the World

by Blake Hoena, Eduardo García (Illustrator)

In 1980 the Soviet Union had dominated the world of hockey for nearly 30 years. Nobody thought the USSR's hockey team could be beaten in the Winter Olympics. But US Hockey coach Herb Brooks didn't believe that. He pulled together a ragtag team of amateur hockey players and molded them into a team that could compete with the best teams in the world. Through months of hard work and determination, the US team achieved the impossible and defeated the dreaded Soviets. Readers will get a thrilling up-close look at the story of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team and their miraculous victory in Lake Placid, New York.

Genres: Graphic Novels

32 pages, Library Binding

Published August 1, 2018

About the author

Blake A. Hoena grew up in central Wisconsin, where, in his youth, he wrote stories about robots conquering the Moon and trolls lumbering around in the woods behind his parents house, and the fact that the trolls were hunting for little boys had nothing to do with Blake’s pesky brothers. Later, he moved to Minnesota to pursue a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Since graduating, Blake has written more than thirty books for children, including retellings of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the Perseus and Medusa myth. Most recently, he’s working on a series of graphic novels about two space alien brothers, Eek and Ack, who are determined to conquer our big blue home.

--from the author's website

Reviews

[Beth Huddleston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sports graphic novel was quick and hit the highlights, but it also had a lot of sports announcer bubbles. I know this was meant to add flavor to the games, but for me it felt like it interrupted the story without enough context in the first half of the book. The second half gave more context, so the bubbles felt more relevant.

[Bethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Happy to see this piece of my formative years in graphic novel format, glad to see the hockey and historical era portrayed correctly, unfortunately the illustrations are less than appealing.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very unique way to learn about the Miracle on Ice. This was a lighter way to see how a group of seemingly random hockey players managed to string out wins when they mattered most. Being a Minnesotan there is never too much hockey lore in the world.