Ice Magic: Chapters 1–3

by Matt Christopher
When middle schooler Pie Pennelli is told by the Byrd twins that his recent hockey game had exactly the same moves and score as the one they'd played on a toy the night before, he is unsure what to think about this possible magic.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–8, Chapters 9–13
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. vibrant
    (of sounds) strong and resonating
    As if thinking about it was a signal, there came a sudden knocking on his door and his mother's vibrant voice. “Pie! Get up!”
  2. gorge
    a deep ravine, usually with a river running through it
    He walked up Oak Street, crossed Madison, and turned left, soon reaching the high wire fence that separated the street from the gorge that gave the village of Deep Gorge its name.
  3. chasm
    a deep opening in the earth's surface
    A squirrel chattered as it clung, head down, onto the side of a tree that hung over the breathless chasm, and Pie smiled.
  4. exasperated
    greatly annoyed; out of patience
    “What do you do Friday nights? Watch the late-late show?”
    “And the late-late-late show, too,” Pie replied, exasperated. He hadn’t sat down yet to put on his skates and Terry was already picking on him.
  5. crusty
    blunt and ill-tempered
    He didn’t know why Terry was so crusty toward him.
  6. capacity
    the amount that can be contained
    Only a handful of fans sat in the stands that seated a capacity crowd of three thousand.
  7. designate
    indicate a place, direction, person, or thing
    Up on the electric scoreboard the time clock read 12:00. The first of the four large glass buttons beneath the hour lights was lit. Each button designated a period.
  8. belligerent
    characteristic of an enemy or one eager to fight
    Terry and Ed Kadola, the Bears’ belligerent center, slapped at it, and it skewed across the ice to Bud.
  9. chafe
    disturb, especially by minor irritations
    And Pie heard Terry yell, “You slowpoke! We could’ve scored!”
    Almost on the heels of Terry’s chafing remark came a yell from the stands.
  10. wrest
    obtain by seizing forcibly or violently, also metaphorically
    Across the red center line the Penguins’ two defensemen were struggling to wrest the puck away from the Bears’ forwards.
  11. groggy
    stunned or confused and slow to react
    The Bears rolled off him, and he climbed slowly to his feet, groggy and tired.
  12. jubilant
    joyful and proud especially because of triumph or success
    The rink resounded with a roar as jubilant Penguins drummed their sticks against the boards.
  13. futile
    unproductive of success
    Up shot the goalie in a futile effort to catch it with his gloved hand.
  14. plague
    annoy continually or chronically
    Pie skated off the ice, plagued by his oversize skates more than he was by Terry’s cutting sarcasm.
  15. bewildered
    extremely confused and uncertain what to do
    “What is?” he asked bewilderedly.
  16. clout
    strike hard, especially with the fist
    Bang! Chuck clouted the puck toward the Bears’ net.
  17. evade
    act in a way to avoid or escape from difficulty
    They passed it back and forth among them, evading Bud, Terry, Chuck, and Frog with quick, accurate passes.
  18. dejected
    affected or marked by low spirits
    Ed Courtney picked the puck up dejectedly and tossed it to the ref, while the huge room thundered with the resounding noise of hockey sticks drumming against the boards.
  19. resounding
    characterized by loud, deep sound
    Ed Courtney picked the puck up dejectedly and tossed it to the ref, while the huge room thundered with the resounding noise of hockey sticks drumming against the boards.
  20. momentum
    the product of a body's mass and its velocity
    The combination of oversize skates and momentum made it impossible for Pie to turn in time, and he went crashing into the goalie.
  21. disgruntled
    in a state of sulky dissatisfaction
    Disgruntled, he disentangled himself from the goalie and crawled out of the crease.
  22. determination
    firmness of purpose
    Pie came back on the ice filled with the determination to get that score back, and he managed to drive a shot that missed the net by inches.
  23. blunt
    characterized by directness in manner or speech
    While the second line was on the ice, Terry said to Pie, “We’re going on the ice one more time. Hope you don’t do anything to get yourself in the sin bin.”
    “You think I want to get in there?” Pie snorted.
    “Well—you play as if you do,” Terry answered, bluntly.
  24. curt
    speaking in a terse, rude, or abrupt way
    Pie remembered Terry’s curt warning and tried his best not to commit a foul.
  25. sullen
    showing a brooding ill humor
    Ignoring him, Pie skated to his position, sullen and dead tired.
  26. dismally
    in a cheerless manner
    Man, I just can't do a thing right, he thought dismally.
  27. frigid
    extremely cold
    The frigid air nipped at his cheeks like sharp teeth.
  28. emphatically
    without question and beyond doubt
    “Of course, we’re sure,” Jody replied emphatically.
  29. junction
    the place where two or more things come together
    They reached the junction opposite the gorge and turned right on Oak, none of them saying a word during the last one hundred feet.
  30. immerse
    devote fully to
    They were immersed in the toy hockey game, which seemed to be controlled by some kind of magical power.
  31. grueling
    characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion
    “What’ve you got to eat?”
    Those were the first words he always greeted her with when he returned from a grueling hockey game.
  32. maneuver
    move skillfully, as around obstacles or into a position
    On it stood four-inch-high plywood figures that were maneuvered by rods protruding from the narrow ends.
  33. crude
    not carefully or expertly made
    “It looks handmade,” he observed.
    “It is,” Jody replied. “There’s a name carved on the side of it. Look.”
    He lifted the game and saw a crudely carved name: SKXROT.
  34. incredulously
    in a disbelieving manner
    “Really? Was hockey played that many years ago?” Joliette asked, incredulously.
  35. protruding
    extending out above or beyond a surface or boundary
    Pie took hold of the knobs of each rod protruding from the ends of the game and began pushing them back and forth, thereby manipulating the players in the slots on the rink.
  36. endowed
    provided or supplied or equipped with
    This hockey game is endowed with magical powers.
  37. dissipate
    go away, scatter, or disappear
    However,
    Beware what happens on a real rink first
    Repeats here not, for fate
    Promises that, as true as bubbles burst,
    The magic will dissipate.
  38. manipulate
    hold something in one's hands and move it
    Pie had difficulty manipulating his men as rapidly as Jody did, and after ten minutes of play Jody won, 5 to 1.
  39. genuine
    not fake or counterfeit
    During all that time Pie looked for something strange about the toy hockey game, something that would prove to him that it definitely had magical powers. But he saw nothing, and in spite of the message that the twins had found with the game, he began to doubt its genuineness.
  40. avid
    marked by active interest and enthusiasm
    “Maybe it won’t work if you play it,” Joliette said, her blue eyes looking at him avidly.
Created on Mon May 08 10:57:06 EDT 2023 (updated Thu May 11 13:39:37 EDT 2023)

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