Is skating on ice in Kenya too big of a dream?

Kenyan orphans, Kitoo and Nigosi, spend their days studying, playing soccer, helping their elders with chores around the orphanage and reading from the limited selection of books in their library. When the librarian gives Kitoo a copy of Sports Around the World he becomes fascinated by an image of the Canadian national men's ice hockey team. Then one day the fates align and Kitoo finds a pair of beat up old roller blades, he teaches himself to skate and dreams of one day playing hockey like the men in his book. But you can't play ice hockey in Kenya, can you? (From Orca Book Publishers)

Hockey Night in Kenya is a finalist for the 2022 Silver Birch Express Award, which celebrates fiction books for readers in Grades 3-4.

Danson Mutinda is an author based in Kenya. His parents, Ruth and Henry Kyatha, co-founded the Hope Development Centre orphanage with Eric and Anita Walters in 2007. He and his co-author, Eric Walters, worked together to write this story of two children who are based on many of the children they work with at the centre.

Eric Walters is one of Canada's most prolific writers for young people. He's penned almost 100 books, including Camp X, The Power of Three and Run.

Claudia Dávila is a Toronto-based artist and illustrator. Her other books include Super Red Riding Hood and Child Soldier, which was written by Michel Chikwanine and Jessica Dee Humphreys.