A funny thing happened on the way to the arena...
Twelve years ago I read a book. I suspect, actually, that I ready many books. However, one in particular has somehow managed to shape the course of my life. Very impressive for a children's book (reader ages 9 - 12) that I read when I was just ten years old.
In the fifth grade my class participated in the Silver Birch Awards. The idea was that each student would read at least five books off of a pre-selected list and then vote for their favourite. I believe that Silverwing won by a landslide that year.
I, however got "stuck" with a flimsy little 128 page book about hockey. Now, I begged and begged my teacher to let me read something else from the list. Anything else. Alas (or rather fortunately) I continued to be stuck with my hockey book; much to the chagrin of the peewee hockey playing boys in my class who wanted the easy read. They were stuck reading Jess and the Runaway Grandpa and Homechild.
It occurs to me now that my fifth grade teacher was twisted and manipulative.
But that's enough details about why I was reading the 'silly' book.
Kidnapped in Sweden: Screech Owls #5 by Roy MacGregor
"The Screech Owls are off to Stockholm to take part in the first-ever International Goodwill Peewee Tournament, featuring teams from Finland, Norway, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Russia, as well as from all over Sweden.
Not only do the Owls get to go on the trip of a lifetime, they also learn the differences between European and North American hockey and make some great new friends - including the thirteen-year-old Russian phenomenon Slava Shadrin, who is already being called “the next Pavel Bure.”
The young hockey star even travels with his own bodyguards. The police, it turns out, suspect the “Russian Mob” is planning to kidnap Slava and hold him for ransom!
And sure enough, when Slava and his new Screech Owls friends give his bodyguards the slip, the Mob moves in. But the villains end up with more captives than they intended…" - synopsis by McClelland & Stewart
When I was ten this book was even more terrifying than Claudia and the Phantom Phone Call. And that is saying something because I refused to answer the phone for weeks after reading that one. Well, after reading Kidnapped in Sweden I was scared of being cornered on a bridge by mobsters for a month. Too bad I happened I happened to live right near a bridge...
However, the point is that once I start reading this book I utterly devoured it. The plot was intense, the characters were fun and spunky, and the climax was killer. And, on top of all that, it was about kids my age thwarting the Russian mob!
As soon as I finished the book I was off on my bike to the public library to snatch up the rest of the series.
So, why do I say that this series of children's books has managed to give a shape to the course of my life? There is a simple answer to that. His name is Дмитри Якюшев (Dmitri Yakushev for those of whom are not trying to practice their Russian while writing LJ entries at 4:44 AM... eerie). Those of you who know me well, or at all, will know that after a certain point in a fandom the plot no long matters. I become solely concerned with characters and their development; usually zero-ing in on a focus character. In the case of this series I settled on Dmitri: The skinny blond kid with a crooked smile. The lightning quick right winger with a backhand to make any goalie's waterbottle shake with fear.
Twelve years after reading that book for the first time:
- My type is still skinny blonds (though I do give Digimon some credit for that).
- Despite the fact that the only sports I've ever played competitively are baseball, badminton, and ju jitsu I will happily sit down and watch any set of sports movies (particularly hockey movies like the Mighty Ducks Trilogy or Miracle). I've even watched tapes of the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR.
- I have a Yakushev family of Dolls and one day I will find the perfect Dmitri.
- I have taken a Russian class.
- I am taking health and sport psychology classes.
- And, oh yeah, I'm moving to Russia.
Clearly Kidnapped in Sweden and Dmitri had lasting effects that I never could have imagined. Is it healthy? Maybe not, but at least I'm not out trying to snag an emotionally abusive vampire.