• Age: 8 to 12
• Grade: 3 to 7

After a losing hockey game, a teammate cheers Malcolm up by telling him that the Albatros player his family is billeting attributes his success to ketchup toast. Malcolm persuades his mother to become a host family for a student in the hockey-study program. Malcolm would grow up with players like Nicolas Raymond, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and MarcÉric Bourque. Together, they experience the ups and downs of the hockey world, from basement games to a big draft ceremony.

This true and humorous story takes the reader through the journey of a hockey player and a passionate mother in a beautiful family spirit.

Born in 1977, Mélanie Doré lives in Rivière-du-Loup, where she markets an organizati on that oversees the conservati on and development of the islands of the Saint Lawrence. In 2011, she decided to become a host family for the Collège Notre-Dame Albatros midget AAA team by taking in its fi rst resident. In all, some fi ft een young people from Gaspésie, the Lower Saint Lawrence and Quebec City region found refuge in her home during the school year. The best known of them, Pierre-Luc Dubois, has been playing in the National Hockey League since 2017. Hockey et toasts au ketchup! is her fi rst novel.

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Romain Lasser is an art director and illustrator in the fi eld of communicati ons and culture. His illustrations stand out for their richness and vitality. Constantly in search of visual aestheti cs, Romain likes to take a singular look at the spaces that surround us and transpose them into magnificent colours.

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