Review of The Longest Shot: How Larry Kwong Changed the Face of Hockey by Canadian Review of Materials

Excerpt: 

That season Larry racked up more points than any Rover had in almost a decade. New Year fans voted him the team’s most valuable player (MVP) of the year. On March 7, 1948, he received his prize, a wristwatch, from the Rovers’ fan club. That night the Rangers needed another forward to go up against Gordie “Mr. Hockey” Howe and the Detroit Red Wings. Again they passed over Larry, inviting his roommate Hub Anslow to join them instead At the time Larry didn’t complain but many years later in shared his feelings. “Definitely I should’ve been up there,” he said “I was the leading scorer, and yet they pull everybody else up before me.”

The evolution of sports in Canada has a long history that extends back to early indigenous games and includes the emergence of more recent sports such as snowboarding and kite surfing. Initially consisting of private activities for the participants’ enjoyment and benefit, organized sport became increasingly professionalized during the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly with the development of local and national organizations dedicated to sport. With these developments, the activity of sport took on a greater collective significance and became an important part of communal life, people’s sense of belonging, and their expression of shared identity. Numerous works of fiction and nonfiction about hockey for young readers have been published, but only more recently has more attention been devoted to the contributions of underrepresented communities to Canada’s sport history.

A chapter book for older readers, Chad Soon and George Chiang’s The Longest Shot addresses these omissions in Canada’s sport history and profiles Chinese Canadian hockey player Larry Kwong who made significant contributions to the sport and inspired future generations to participate. As Chad Soon mentioned in the book’s preface, he learned about Kwong from his grandfather during his childhood years and was reminded of this individual in a news article decades later. However, little information existed in print and on the Internet about Kwong, which prompted Soon to contact Kwong himself. Through his extensive conversations with Kwong over several years, Soon learned about his life and career which began with his childhood years in Vernon, British Columbia. As a culmination of those conversations, The Longest Shot brings Kwong’s compelling story to the public, ensures that his contributions are not forgotten, and inscribes his presence within Canada’s historical past…

For the full review, see here.