Most Popular Books by Roy Macgregor

When the Screech Owls travel to New York City for the Big Apple International Peewee Tournament and a New Year''s Eve party in Times Square, they learn that terrorists plan to disrupt the New Year''s celebration.

While recovering from a concussion, Travis stumbles upon a polot to steal the Stanley Cup.

Shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award “A truly magnificent book.” —Calgary Herald It’s the great Canadian icon: a frozen creek, a backyard rink, a father passing something precious on to his child—the love of a game. There is nothing quite so Canadian as hockey, and nothing quite so evocative in hockey as the relationships between Canadian hockey players and their fathers. Here are the personal tales of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey and Marty McSorley, told as the four NHL stars take their fathers on a hockey tour of Europe. Here are the memories of hockey’s grand families: Gordie, Mark and Travis Howe; Bill, Kevin and Gord Dineen; Murray, Ken and Michael Dryden. Here is Brett Hull’s story of the famous father who was never home. But The Home Team is about more than famous names. It is the story of the father and son left weeping in the stands at the end of a disappointing draft day. It is the story of a minor league coach and his house league son. This book is about hockey. It is also about where we live and who we are: a book for all fathers and sons in Canada.

The Screech Owls have come to the southern city of San Antonio, Texas, a surprising hotbed of American ice hockey. They are here to compete in the San Antonio Peewee Invitational, and between games can explore the fascinating canals that twist and turn through a maze of shops and restaurants in the city''s downtown. The tournament has been set up to include guided tours of the Alamo, the world''s most famous fort, and for one night the championship team will even get to camp out in the historic site. The Screech Owls discover that the Alamo is America''s greatest symbol of courage and freedom, and when Travis and his friends uncover a plot to destroy it, they must call upon all the courage of the fort''s original defenders.

The Screech Owls find themselves in a difficult situation when they are abducted with their new friend Slava Shadrin, a star hockey player who is wanted by the Russian mob

Winner of The CAA–Birks Family Foundation Award for Biography The 2000 Ottawa-Carlton Book Award The (U.S.) Rutstrum Award for Best Wilderness Book In 1929, at the age of twenty-two, Duncan MacGregor, the son of a lumberman, great-grandson of a voyageur, and an avid reader and baseball fan, headed off into the largest tract of preserved bush in the world: Ontario’s Algonquin Park. When he got there, he was home for the rest of his life. From the true nature of fishing to the harsh realities of raising a family in the woods, from the role of fear in the bush to the small nuances of family relationships, A Life in the Bush is painted on a canvas both vast and richly detailed. A story that captures the tough physical demands, the rich life of the senses, and the unselfconscious freedom that comes from living apart from town and city. In this beautifully crafted memoir of his father, Roy MacGregor paints an intimate portrait of an unusual man and spins a spellbinding tale of a boy’s complex relationship with his father. He also evokes, perhaps for the first time in Canadian literature, the bush the way bush people see it, an insider''s view of life in the totemic Canadian wilderness.

The Screech Owls are invited to compete in a four-day skills competition in Detroit. Along with another team, they will be participating in a reality show called Goals & Dreams. They''re staying at a fancy hotel, being showered with hockey swag, given Hollywood nicknames, and posing for the film crew -- Hockeytown doesn''t look bad at all! That''s until they meet the other team and start noticing how differently they''re being treated. Are the producers engineering certain tensions and situations to pump up the show? The Screech Owls don''t like to be manipulated . . .

Now that his hockey career is ending, what will become of his life? Felix Batterinski grew up tough in Northern Ontario where hockey was the only way out of a life of grinding poverty. He got out and enjoyed fame as a hockey "enforcer" for the Philadelphia Flyers. But fame is fleeting. Now in his thirties and at the end of his playing career, Felix tries to make a go of it as a player-coach for a Finnish club. As the lone Canadian on the team, he is an outsider with a reputation that takes on a life of its own. When a controversial play brings his comeback bid to a screeching halt, Felix is faced with his own obsolescence and begins a tragic descent into disillusion and despair.

The Screech Owls are in Boston for the Paul Revere Peewee Invitational. Nish decides to drop out of school. If it worked for Ben Franklin, it will work for him. Sarah becomes increasingly concerned about Samantha''s attraction to a group of protesters demanding that the New England Aquarium "Free the Penguins." When the girls learn that the protesters have far more in mind than speeches and waving placards, the Owls have to act fast to save the lives of thousands of sea creatures.

In October 1983 Ken Dryden gave us what was called the best non-fiction book ever written about hockey - The Game. In that same month Roy MacGregor published what was hailed as the best novel ever written about hockey - The Last Season. In 1989 these two writers teamed up to write another extraordinary book: inspired by Ken Dryden''s major CBC-TV series on hockey, Home Game takes us all the way from street hockey to the showdowns between Canada and the Soviets. On publication, Home Game shot to the top of the bestseller lists, establishing itself as must reading for every hockey fan. Not only was this lavish book with over 95 full-colour photographs popular among ordinary Canadians: book reviewers loved it.

From Canada’s beloved award-winning journalist and bestselling author comes a collection of essays, new and previously published, on man’s best friend. In the course of 20 years of column writing about everything from politics to hockey and everything in between, Roy MacGregor has learned firsthand that the columns with the greatest reader impact have been those about the family dog. Roy has collected these columns and written many more on everything from puppy love to the sorrow of losing a pet, as experienced by Roy and the dogs he’s known and loved.

Who are we? In Canadians, one of Canada’s most intelligent and beloved writers maps our national psyche in a wonderful and ambitious work. Canadians is an entertaining portrait of this country and its people, through its history, popular culture, literature, sport, landscape, and weather. In his pursuit of the Canadian national identity, MacGregor has travelled far and wide, taking our pulse, telling our stories. A sparkling blend of historical, anecdotal, and reflective writing converges in a narrative that is extraordinarily learned in its perceptions and light in its delivery—all trademarks of this remarkable writer’s work.

Someone is out to steal the Stanley Cup - and only the Screech Owls stand between the thieves and their prize! Travis, Nish, and the rest of the Screech Owls have come to Toronto for the biggest hockey tournament of their lives - only to find themselves in the biggest mess of their lives. First Nish sprains his ankle falling down the stairs at the CN Tower. Later, key members of the team get caught shoplifting. And during a tour of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Travis overhears two men plotting to swipe the priceless Stanley Cup and hold it for ransom! Can the Screech Owls do anything to save the most revered trophy in the land? And can the team also rise to the challenge on the ice and play their best hockey ever?

The Screech Owls have never had such a wonderful surprise. A famous Russian billionaire has offered to pay and fly the whole team to his country. He wants the Owls to visit his homeland so the Russians can learn from the Screech Owls'' style of play. The team will play in a tournament while they are there, but even before their first practice on Russian ice, Sarah is taken off the snowy streets. Her kidnappers want ten million rubles in exchange for her safe release! The billionaire wants to pay for Sarah''s safe return, but Travis and his teammates decide to take matters into their own hands.

If you could travel through time, who would you want to meet? Lucas Finnigan eats, sleeps and breathes hockey. With his friends Edge, Swift and Crunch, Lucas plays on his hometown’s rink, dreaming of the day when he knows he’ll make the NHL. But lately money has been tight at home, and, after a major growth spurt, Lucas is forced to wear hand-me-down gear that doesn’t quite fit right. Now he’s not sure he’ll ever make it to the Hall of Fame like his hockey heroes. And that’s not the only problem. With the community arena’s chiller on the fritz, and replacement parts too tough to come by, it looks like Lucas and his friends may be doomed to a season on a plastic rink—or worse, no hockey at all! But with a magical discovery, and some help from one of hockey''s greatest players (who was a kid once, too!), their final skate might turn into their first great adventure . . .

"For nearly fourty years, Roy MacGregor has brought our national sport alive on the pages of Canada''s newspapers and magazines. Now, he has collected the very best of that writing - along with some published for the first time - in a volume that will provide hours of delight to anyone who loves the game."--Publisher.

9-year-old Gabe (Gabriella) Murray lives and breathes hockey. She''s the youngest player on her new team, she has a nifty move that her teammates call "the Gabe," and she shares a lucky number with her hero, Hayley Wickenheiser: number 22. But when her coach hands out the team jerseys, Gabe is stuck with number 9. Crushed, Gabe wants to give up hockey altogether. How can she play without her lucky number? Gabe''s grandmother soon sets her straight, though--from her own connection to the number 9 in her hockey-playing days to all the greats she cheered for who wore it, she soon convinces Gabe that this new number might not be so bad after all. A lovely intergenerational tale and a history of the storied number 9 in hockey, The Highest Number in the World is a must-have for any hockey fan.

One of Canada''s greatest journalists shares a half century of the stories behind the stories. From his vantage point harnessed to a tree overlooking the town of Huntsville (he tended to wander), a very young Roy MacGregor got in the habit of watching people—what they did, who they talked to, where they went. He has been getting to know his fellow Canadians and telling us all about them ever since. From his early days in the pages of Maclean''s, to stints at the Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, National Post and most famously from his perch on page two of the Globe and Mail, MacGregor was one of the country''s must-read journalists. While news media were leaning increasingly right or left, he always leaned north, his curiosity trained by the deep woods and cold lakes of Algonquin Park to share stories from Canada''s farthest reaches, even as he worked in the newsrooms of its southern capitols. From Parliament to the backyard rink, subarctic shores to prairie expanses, MacGregor shaped the way Canadians saw and thought about themselves—never entirely untethered from the land and its history. When MacGregor was still a young editor at Maclean''s, the 21-year-old chief of the Waskaganish (aka Rupert''s House) Crees, Billy Diamond, found in Roy a willing listener as the chief was appealing desperately to newsrooms across Ottawa, trying to bring attention to the tainted-water emergency in his community. Where other journalists had shrugged off Diamond''s appeals, MacGregor got on a tiny plane into northern Quebec. From there began a long friendship that would one day lead MacGregor to a Winnipeg secret location with Elijah Harper and his advisors, a host of the most influential Indigenous leaders in Canada, as the Manitoba MPP contemplated the Charlottetown Accord and a vote that could shatter what seemed at the time the country''s last chance to save Confederation. This was the sort of exclusive access to vital Canadian stories that Roy MacGregor always seemed to secure. And as his ardent fans will discover, the observant small-town boy turned pre-eminent journalist put his rare vantage point to exceptional use. Filled with reminiscences of an age when Canadian newsrooms were populated by outsized characters, outright rogues and passionate practitioners, the unputdownable Paper Trails is a must-read account of a life lived in stories.

The Screech Owls have come to Ottawa, the capital of Canada, to play in the world’s biggest minor league hockey tournament — more than 500 teams gathering from all over the world! Little does Nish realize, as he befriends the hilarious, daring mascot, that he is about to embark on the most terrifying adventure of his lifetime.

Travis Lindsay, his best friend, Nish, and all their pals on the Screech Owls hockey team, are on their way to New York for an international peewee tournament. Excitement builds in the team van on the way to Lake Placid. First there are the entertaining antics of their trainer, Mr. Dillinger - then there''s the prospect of playing on an Olympic rink, in a huge arena, knowing there will be scouts in the stands. But they have barely arrived when things start to go wrong. Their star center, Sarah, plays badly from lack of sleep. Next Travis gets knocked down in the street. And then someone starts tampering with equipment. It looks as if someone is trying to sabotage the Screech Owls. But who? And why? And can Travis and the others stop the destruction before the decisive game of the tournament?

When the Screech Owls take a spring break in Florida, they wind up uncovering a plot to terrorize all of America

The Screech Owls have come to Ottawa to play in the Little Stanley Cup peewee tournament. This relaxed summer event honours Lord Stanley himself - the man who donated the Stanley Cup to hockey - and gives young players a chance to see the wonders of Canada''s capital city, travel into the wilds of Algonquin Park, and even go river rafting. Mr. Dillinger is also taking them to visit some of the region''s famous ghosts: the ghost of a dead prime minister; the ghost of a man hanged for murder; the ghost of the famous painter Tom Thomson. At first the Owls think this is Mr. Dillinger''s best idea ever, until Travis and his friends begin to suspect that one of these ghosts could be for real. Who is this phantom? Why has he come to haunt the Screech Owls? And what is his connection to the mysterious young stranger who offers to coach the team?

"While in Quebec City for the Peewee Invitational, Travis keeps a diary for the newspaper. A terrible misunderstanding follows, leading to terror against the team" Cf. Our choice, 1998-1999.

One of our favourite chroniclers of all things Canadian presents a rollicking, personal, photo-filled history of the relationship between a country and its canoes. From the earliest explorers on the Columbia River in BC or the Mattawa in Ontario to a doomed expedition of voyageurs up the Nile to rescue Khartoum; from the author''s family roots deep in the Algonquin wilderness to modern families who have canoed across the country (kids and dogs included): Canoe Country is Roy MacGregor''s celebration of the essential and enduring love affair Canadians have with our first and still favourite means of getting around. Famous paddlers have been so enchanted with the canoe that one swore God made Canada as the perfect country in which to paddle it. Drawing on MacGregor''s own decades spent whenever possible with a paddle in his hand, this is a story of high adventure on white water and the sweetest peace in nature''s quietest corners, from the author best able (and most eager) to tell it.

The Screech Owls have won a contest that takes them to London, England, for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play in-line hockey at historic Wembley Stadium. They leave the morning after Hallowe’en and arrive in time to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day in Britain. But between trips to Madame Tussaud’s infamous Chamber of Horrors and the notorious Tower of London, the Owls become entangled in a plot so dangerous and frightening it makes Hallowe’en seem like a tea party.

The Ice Chips have time travel down to a science . . . almost. After Ekamjeet “Edge” Singh misses out on their most recent adventure, he convinces his teammates to take another leap through time. But when their magic goes haywire, a hero from the past finds her way onto the Chips’ hometown rink—and leaves behind a very important trophy! It’s up to the Ice Chips to return the famous award to its rightful home, before all of hockey history changes forever. It won’t be easy, but if they can get the cup back where it belongs, they might just have the chance to win it for themselves. The fourth title in the beloved and bestselling Ice Chips series, by acclaimed authors Roy MacGregor and Kerry MacGregor and illustrator Kim Smith, features a vibrant and diverse cast of characters and inspiring hockey greats.

The Screech Owls have come to Salt Lake City for the Peewee Winter Games – with the championship game to be played on the same ice surface where the Canadian men and women won Olympic hockey gold! Nish has plans to run his own competition: the Gross-Out Olympics, featuring everything from taping players to dressing room walls with duct tape to the “Snot Shot” – seeing how far they can fire a jellybean using only their noses. He also has a team contest to see who can figure out the Great Nish Secret and guess what the nuttiest Screech Owl of all has buried at centre ice for good luck. But that secret pales once the Owls find out something strange – something terrifying – is going on in the tunnels deep beneath the magnificent hills surrounding the Olympic site.

"The eccentric spinster Winnie Trainor was a fixture of Roy MacGregor''s childhood in Huntsville, Ontario. She was considered too odd to be a truly romantic figure in the eyes of the town, but the locals knew that Canada''s most famous painter had once been in love with her, and that she had never gotten over his untimely death. She kept some paintings he gave her in a six-quart basket she''d leave with the neighbours on her rare trips out of town, and in the summers she''d make the trip from her family cottage, where Thomson used to stay, on foot to the graveyard up the hill, where fans of the artist occasionally left bouquets. There she would clear away the flowers. After all, as far as anyone knew, he wasn''t there: she had arranged at his family''s request for him to be exhumed and moved to a cemetery near Owen Sound.

Expanding on his landmark Globe and Mail series in which he documented his travels down sixteen of Canada''s great rivers, Roy MacGregor tells the story of our country through the stories of its original highways, and how they sustain our spirit, identity and economy—past, present and future. No country is more blessed with fresh water than Canada. From the mouth of the Fraser River in BC, to the Bow in Alberta, the Red in Manitoba, the Gatineau, the Saint John and the most historic of all Canada''s rivers, the St. Lawrence, our beloved chronicler of Canadian life, Roy MacGregor, has paddled, sailed and traversed their lengths, learned their stories and secrets, and the tales of centuries lived on their rapids and riverbanks. He raises lost tales, like that of the Great Tax Revolt of the Gatineau River, and reconsiders histories like that of the Irish would-be settlers who died on Grosse Ile and the incredible resilience of settlers in the Red River Valley. Along the Grand, the Ottawa and others, he meets the successful conservationists behind the resuscitation of polluted wetlands, including Toronto''s Don, the most abused river in Canada. In the Mackenzie River Valley he witnesses the Dehcho First Nation''s effort to block a pipeline they worry endangers the region''s lifeblood. Long before our national railroad was built, rivers held Canada together; in these sixteen portraits, filled with yesterday''s adventures and tomorrow''s promise, MacGregor weaves together a story of Canada and its ongoing relationship with its most precious resource.

The Screech Owls head to cottage country to a hockey camp where they encounter a murder.

When one of the Screech Owls hockey team is seriously injured by a drunken hit-and-run driver, his teammates determine to find the culprit.

The Screech Owls are flying around the world to Sydney, Australia, site of the 2000 Olympics, for an exhibition tournament to promote ice hockey in the sports-mad land down under. The trip, however, involves much more than hockey. The teams coming to Sydney will take part in “The Peewee Olympics” – a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the youngsters to compete in real Olympic sports facilities. What will it be for Nish? The pole vault? Synchronized swimming? Beach volleyball? The team is also invited to tour Sydney’s magnificent zoo and the world-renowned Sydney Aquarium, where Sarah’s interest in bizarre marine biology leads to a field trip in search of an endangered sea horse. A field trip that brings the Screech Owls face-to-face with Death Down Under. Check out the Screech Owls'' website at www.screechowls.com.

In February 2002, the greatest hockey teams this country could muster headed to Salt Lake City to compete in the Winter Olympics. Our men and women hoped to go all the way to the finals, but it had been fifty long years since the Canadians had won Olympic gold. In the past, they had come close it was just that luck always seemed to be against them. This time, however, their chances to end the long drought were good. The women looked set for a medal although the all-powerful American team stood between them and the ultimate prize. The Canadian men faced strong opponents, too, but prospects were good for the all-star team assembled by the great Wayne Gretzky. And this time, both teams had a secret weapon. So secret, in fact, they didn''t even know it existed. At first. Like all good secrets this one was too good not to pass along. Under the surface at centre ice, Trent Evans had hidden a Canadian loonie. The expert ice maker had been invited down from Edmonton to help install the ice for the Games, and this was his little good-luck charm for our Olympic hockey teams. Perhaps, he figured, the guys could use some "home ice" advantage. A Loonie for Luck is the true story of that loonie and the magic it wove at Salt Lake City. It follows Wayne Gretzky, Trent Evans, and the men''s and women''s teams through their time at the Games. And it pays tribute to the role of superstition and chance in hockey a part of the sport not always acknowledged, but one that brings real magic to the game. With the close co-operation of Wayne Gretzky and Trent Evans, Roy MacGregor tells the inside story of how the coin came to be in Trent Evans'' pocket and then buried under centre ice. He tells how, throughout the Games, the loonie was in danger of being uncovered as the secret began to spread, and how, as the tournament progressed, with the players in need of every break they could get, the good luck miraculously held. This true story, brilliantly illustrated by Bill Slavin, is full of suspense, humour, and charm. It will delight every Canadian who felt a surge of pride for our athletes at Salt Lake City. From the Hardcover edition.

Practice makes . . . a perfect storm? The Ice Chips are facing a big hurdle at their hometown rink in Riverton. Their biggest rivals, the Stars, have a major advantage, with better gear and a state-of-the-art arena. Without more ice time, the Chips just can’t keep up. Fortunately, the team has a secret weapon: their magical rink, which allows them to travel through time and meet their hockey heroes, who can teach the young players something new about the game. Lucas Finnigan and his teammates have been warned that time travel is dangerous, but when they decided to leap again—hoping to find a way to squeeze in some extra practice—they never dreamed that they would land in the middle of a hurricane! Luckily, a major save from a plucky young player gets the Chips out of some extremely troubled water, and soon they’re running drills all over the Halifax Citadel. But how will these exercises help their hockey playing? And who is this kid anyway? With the help of some of the city’s famous spirits, the players might just make it home ready to compete—and to win.

When the Screech Owls travel to Washington, D.C., for a hockey tournament, they quickly find themselves skating on thin ice as they deal with politics, murder, and the media.