Families Inspired by Magical Toronto Sceptres Storytime

Regent Park
Written By Dan Harbridge

Raygan Kirk (left) & Jessie McPherson (right) of the Toronto Sceptres reading Breaking the Ice

Professional Women’s Hockey League goaltenders Raygan Kirk and Jessie McPherson from Toronto Sceptres and Erin Silver, author of Women’s Hockey Fanbook joined The Children’s Book Bank for a magical event on Tuesday, April 7, in the Daniels Spectrum (home of the Regent Park Book Bank).

Sceptres Storytime was moderated by Silver, with two Sceptres goalies reading a book about a legendary female goalie— Breaking the Ice, the inspiring true story of Manon Rhéaume, the only woman to play a game in the National Hockey League— to the audience.

The players shared how Manon Rhéaume’s story inspired them while they were growing up, demonstrating the importance of representation. Whether it’s on the page or on the ice, representation can inspire and empower. As Billie Jean King said, “if you can see it, you can be it.”

After the storytime, Kirk and McPherson participated in a question and answer period (see an excerpt below) and took pictures with families in attendance. Each child received a copy of Women’s Hockey Fanbook by Erin Silver, thanks to Scholastic Canada and autographed items courtesy of the Toronto Sceptres.

“As well as receiving a free copy of Women’s Hockey Fanbook, each child was able to choose a second book of their choice from our Regent Park Book Bank,” said Karly-Lynne Scott, Director of Communications at The Children’s Book Bank. “Despite having thousands of options, most of the children chose a second book about hockey, showing how special experiences can spark an interest in reading. When children can relate a story or a concept in a book to something they’ve actually experienced, words come alive with meaning and emotion.”

“In 2023, we established our Diverse Books Fund and Inclusion Project to expand our culturally relevant books and programming. Thanks to a generous project grant, we have been able to supplement our book donations by purchasing books that reflect the diversity of the communities we serve. This helps us ensure that we always have books featuring stories about women in sports on our shelves.”

We’d like to thank CTV and The Hockey News for covering the event. Watch the CTV News clip and visit the link to The Hockey News article below.

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EXCERPT FROM Q&A

ERIN SILVER: Who were your role models growing up?

RAYGAN KIRK: I was a big Shannon Szabados fan. I loved Roberto Luongo and Sami Jo Small (she's from Manitoba, where I grew up), and I'm a big Jets fan, so Connor Hellebuyck.

ERIN: Did you ever think that you would be playing in a professional women's hockey league?

JESSIE MCPHERSON: No, not at all. I used to love going to like the local men’s Junior B hockey games and some people in the crowd would say, “That’s going to be you someday.” That was the goal, to play Junior B hockey, and there were Olympic aspirations but to be in [the PWHL], it's incredible.

RAYGAN: I can remember in high school, we had to decorate a binder with a dream or a goal of yours and I remember writing the Canadian Women’s Hockey League on it and that was a goal for me… There's always been women's hockey leagues but now [the PWHL] is here to stay and you [speaking to the crowd] are a huge part of it and how much it's grown.

ERIN: You both went to university and that's how you got recruited to pro hockey, so how important is it to read and to do your homework?

JESSIE: It's very important. I wasn’t much of a reader growing up. I regret it because now I'm a big reader, and Raygan can probably finish four books by the time I finish half of one. Maybe if I started a little younger, it'd be a little different.

RAYGAN: I think that building the right habits right now [speaking to the children in the crowd] is really important. Doing that helped me know what I wanted to do in college. I was a science major, so that's a lot of reading, a lot of big words, and maybe it's not always fun, but now that I’ve graduated, I get to read for fun whenever I want.

[Audience question] KAYA: Do you like winning?

RAYGAN: We love winning! We had a tough January, but we picked it up. We need to win now in order to make it to the playoffs, but that kind of makes it fun. It's like we're playing playoff hockey right now.

[Audience question] UNNAMED: How does it feel to lose? [Laughter from the audience]

RAYGAN: It's not fun, but we do learn a lot from it. You might lose and then two days later, you have to play another game, so you have to move on. It teaches you how to live in the moment, learn from the mistakes and try to win the next one.

KARLY-LYNNE SCOTT: I know the Toronto Sceptres have a team book club. How did that come about and why do you think that is important for your team?

RAYGAN: There are about 16 people in our book club, which is a large portion of the team. Some of the players from other teams who joined us this season had a book club in Montreal and loved it. I had one in college and pushed for us to start one. We have a group chat where we vote on a genre and then on what book to read. It's just a great way to connect with one another. We'll go and get coffee at the end of the month and talk about the book. It's a lot of fun.

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