• Age: 10 to 16
• Grade: 5 to 11

Griffin Tardiff is still suffering from a serious hockey injury at the start of a new year in a new school. But he's in luck. For his community credit, he'll be working with the sports guy at the local radio station, which could be the start of a career. He also meets Noah, a young kid from the neighbourhood who also likes hockey.

Unfortunately, his mentor at the radio station turns out to be less than reliable—and Noah has fears he needs Griffin to help him resolve. Add to this a self-absorbed girlfriend and life in Glenavon turns out to be more complicated than any guy needs.

Jean Mills has been writing professionally for over 30 years, her five Young Adult novels received critical acclaim in Canada and internationally. Skating Over Thin Ice was a 2019 Forest of Reading Red Maple Fiction nominee and was named to the USBBY Outstanding International Book List. Jean is a former college Communications professor, and she also spent ten years on the Media & Communications team at Curling Canada. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing one of her many musical instruments, creating something with yarn, or cheering for the Maple Leafs. Jean lives in Guelph, Ontario.

Jean Mills' profile page

"Jean Mills gives her readers an outstanding main character in The Legend. . . Griffin seems to have it all, and readers will be delighted to experience life with him within this book. . . Hockey enthusiasts will enjoy this book as Mills has insights not only into the sport but into the psyche of players and coaches and the way sports teams work. Other young adult readers will relate to the emotions faced by Griff and the other teens. Mills understands teenagers and provides characters that are true-to-life and interesting. And there is just a touch of romance and just a touch of intrigue added to the plot — enough to ensure readers are engaged from beginning to end.
"In 2018, I gave Mills' novel Skating Over Thin Ice an excellent rating, and, if anything, she has only improved since then. The Legend is a top-notch young adult book from a prize-winning author.
Highly Recommended"

"Griffin Tardiff enters 11th grade in a new school with a shoulder healing from a devastating collision in a hockey playoff game, his last time on the ice.
"Narrator Griffin is self-possessed and articulate, with parents who love and support him; he's a young man prepared to face the challenges that come with relocating due to his father's job. A community service internship pairs him with the local radio station, where a nationally known hockey broadcaster got his start. Though he misses his girlfriend, Blair, and his old team in Ottawa, Griffin gets to cover a bit of all things hockey for the station's broadcast and do their social media. It helps that the hockey jocks in his new school immediately befriend him. Among the all-White cast, no one seems more than merely humanly flawed. The station's sports director has some issues, and Griffin is aware of the shallower behavior of some of his peers, but he steers his own course. He's got the kind of self-confidence and emotional intelligence that allows him to navigate the internship and new school with ease, find success in his first attempts at covering hockey as a member of the press, share his hockey expertise with a classmate's little brother, recognize the privilege he has as someone whose family could afford his hockey participation, and gracefully decide what to do about his relationship with Blair. The challenges are low key, and Griffin's likability is certain. Agreeably entertaining."