Story Hour & Winter Fun: Le Chandail de Hockey (The Hockey Sweater)

Called the best Canadian short story ever written, author Roch Carrier’s 1979 children’s book The Hockey Sweater has been read to children across the country for generations. Join Teams Canada and Quebec for a bilingual reading of this treasured story as part of Festival de la Francophonie. Afterwards:

• test your skills with a hockey stick
• design a hockey jersey, and
• toss a few “snowballs” from our indoor snow forts.

Fuel the winter fun with some maple cream cookies and cocoa!

Doors at 1:00 p.m. Story hour at 1:30. Please enter via 810 N Dearborn St. Please communicate any dietary restrictions to [email protected] by end of day Friday, February 20.

About the Author

By \"jmv\" - \"jmv’s\" flickr account, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1784059

Roch Carrier OC FRSC (born 13 May 1937) is a French Canadian novelist and author of contes (a very brief form of the short story). He is among the best known Quebec writers in English Canada.

A quote from “Le chandail de hockey” (“The Hockey Sweater”), one of Carrier’s contes, was reprinted on the back of the Canadian five-dollar bill. The story, about when Carrier was a young boy who orders a Montreal Canadiens sweater from the Eaton’s catalogue, but receives a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey instead, is considered by many to be a literary allegory for the linguistic and cultural tensions between English and French Canadians, and is thus considered essential reading for anybody who seeks to understand the complex realities of linguistic and cultural identity in Canada. But it is also a much-beloved children’s story in anglophone Canada without such complex overtones as it may have in a broader context. The National Film Board of Canada has made this story into an animated short film, narrated by Carrier in both the French and English versions.

About Festival de la Francophonie

Festival de la Francophonie is the Alliance Française de Chicago’s annual flagship festival, featuring a vibrant lineup of free public programs over the course of the month of March—the official Mois de la Francophonie—celebrating the world’s French-speaking cultures. AF-Chicago is honored to partner with cultural organizations and government institutions across the city to offer high-quality cultural experiences and a forum where people of all ages and backgrounds can discover and connect with the cultures, customs, and language of the Francophone world, to promote lifelong learning and cultural understanding.

Getting Here

The Alliance Française de Chicago is one block from the CTA Red line stop at Chicago Ave. Best bus routes are the 22 on Clark and the 66 on Chicago Ave. A Divvy station is located in front of the 54 W Chicago Ave entrance.

Parking Information

$12 for 12 hours at InterPark at 100 W Chestnut St. Validation is available at reception.

Please be advised that students, members, and attendees at cultural events or programs may be photographed, and these images may be used for marketing purposes.