Jake Newman is a fifteen year old kid who runs away from an abusive situation in West Texas and hitchhikes north with a truck driver, Red Iverson. He tells Jake about his talented hockey-playing son, Robbie, who recently died in a car accident. Listening to this distraught father talk about his cherished and talented son, Jake realizes he himself has never achieved anything meaningful in his life and doubts he ever will. Red says "And here you are-just a nobody, a zero. You got no plans, no future. You don't care about nobody and nobody cares about you."
But everything changes when Jake finds the ice. Due to an unlikely set of circumstance, he finds himself standing by a Northern Wisconsin ice rink which he believes it is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. Mesmerized while watching his first hockey game, Jake realizes that this is what he wants-to play the game, to be able to skate and score and win. He wants to belong to something for the first time in his life and devises a scheme to achieve it. He will live under the bleachers in a forgotten storage area and skate at night. He will carry water to cover his tracks and somehow, he will learn to skate. He will lie, cheat, even steal, to play the game.
Through sheer determination and perseverance, he struggles night after night, skating until dawn and begins to show improvement. He meets people in the community, such as the crotchety retired teacher who hires Jake to do her yardwork and the Dykstras, a hockey family who is struggling after their father's death. Chloe Dykstra is a pretty but bitter classmate who has demons and insecurities of her own. There is also a revered Gulf War veteran, Roger Hallstrom, who was a highly touted star hockey player before he enlisted. He is being pressured to agree to be the coach of the high school hockey team but he is hesitating. From the shadows of his hideaway, Jake observes that Roger appears to have a mysterious illness that he is trying to hide from everyone, even Ellie, the high school sweetheart he left behind.
Jake becomes obsessed with becoming good enough to be able to fool everyone into thinking he has played hockey his whole life like the other boys. While he is clever and able to create a fictionalized existence for himself, Jake struggles with his deception and lives in fear that the truth will be discovered. He understands that his fabricated life could implode and these people will hate him. The more successful he is, the more afraid he becomes. His dream could be lost and he will be set adrift again. He believes he was born of the ice and it is the only thing that matters in his life.
Jake is an extremely engaging character who will quickly capture the attention of the readers in this coming of age story about dogged persistence, self-discovery, and believing in a dream. If Jake thinks his identity and value is solely dependent upon his success on the ice, what will happen to him if it is all striped away?
This novel will be enjoyed by anyone who roots for the underdog, understands the ups and downs of teenagers, and has an appreciation for both the heartache and exhilaration that is a part of playing competitive sports. It is also a study of the impact adults have in the life of a teenager when self-respect and self-awareness are the most vulnerable.
It's a story about a kid, a sheet of ice, and a dream.
