Soccer Halfback

by Matt Christopher

Jabber Morris has had his heart set on playing soccer, but his family is pressuring him to play football, a sport his father played and loved before he died. A tough situation is made even more difficult when suspicion of stealing a wallet falls on Jabber's shoulders. Now he has to tell his uncle that he's decided to play soccer once and for all -- and convince his brother that he's not a thief. But will either of them accept what he says?

Genres: Sports, Fiction, Childrens, Soccer, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade

182 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Matt Christopher is the writer young readers turn to when they're looking for fast-paced, action-packed sports novels. He is the best-selling author of more than one hundred sports books for young readers.

Matt Christopher is America's bestselling sports writer for children, with more than 100 books and sales approaching six million copies. In 1992, Matt Christopher talked about being a children's book author.

"I became interested in writing when I was 14, a freshman in high school. I was selling magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Country Gentleman, and Liberty, and I would read the stories, particularly the adventure and mystery stories, and think how wonderful it would be to be able to write stories and make a living at it. I also read detective, horror, aviation, and sports stories and decided I would try writing them myself.

Determined to sell, I wrote a detective story a week for 40 weeks, finding the time to marry, work, and play baseball and basketball before I sold my first story in 1941, "The Missing Finger Points," for $50 to Detective Story magazine.

After writing and selling children's sports stories to magazines, I decided to write a baseball book for children. I was living in Syracuse, New York at the time, working at General Electric. I spoke about my idea to the branch librarian. She was immediately interested and told me that they needed sports stories badly. So I came up with my first children's book, The Lucky Baseball Bat. I submitted it to Little, Brown, and the book was published in 1954.

I'm sure that playing sandlot baseball and then semiprofessional baseball with a Class C club in the Canadian-American League influenced my writing. I had my own personal experiences, and I saw how other players reacted to plays, to teammates' and fans' remarks and innuendoes, to managers' orders, etc. All these had a great influence on my writing. My love of the game helped a lot, too, of course.

Out of all the books I've written, my favorite is The Kid Who Only Hit Homers. It's a fantasy, but the main character in it could be real. There are a lot of boys who would love to play baseball but, for some reason, cannot. The only difference between a real-life boy and Sylvester Coddmyer III is the appearance of a character named George Baruth, whom only Sylvester can see and who helps Sylvester become a good ballplayer.

I've written many short stories and books for both children and adults, and find that writing for children is really my niche. Being the eldest of nine children (seven boys and two girls), I've lived through a lot of problems many children live through, and I find these problems excellent examples to include in my books.

Sports have made it possible for me to meet many people with all sorts of life stories, on and off the field, and these are grist for this writer's mill. I'm far beyond playing age now, but I manage to go to both kids' and adult games just to keep up with them, and keep them fresh in my mind.Very few things make me happier than receiving fan letters from boys and girls who write that they had never cared for reading until they started to read my books. That is just about the ultimate in writing for children. I would never trade it for another profession."

Matt Christopher died on September 27, 1997. His legacy is now being carried on by his sons, Duane and Dale Christopher.

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm short on time again today, so, I'll just be brief: Even though I've never been big on watching sports, I have enjoyed stories about them over the years, both in literary and celluloid form. This was another winner from prolific sports fiction writer Matt Christopher.

EDIT: I had forgotten that I had read this previously. Also, I found it funny not only that the main character has the nickname Jabber, which sounds like a certain gangster from a galaxy far, far away, but that it mentioned O.J. Simpson in a positive light. If only the author knew at the time how notorious "Orange Juice" would become in the nineties!

[Lydia Ware · Rating 2 out of 5]

I recognize that I am not the target audience, but this was not an enjoyable read for me. There were too many mentions of family conflict and traumatic past events not to delve into the characters’ emotions regarding these things. And the extensive soccer narratives sounded (at times) like they were written by someone who has never played the game.
P. S. Where did these names come from??

[Hayden Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like suspense or soccer you should read this book.

[Richard L. Haas III · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh boy. This had to be the worst book in human history. Let's list all the reasons why:

1) Now in the story the father is dead. How do I know this, they mention it on every other page and rub it into the main character's face like how his mother said, "I told him there were scholarships available for children whose fathers were dead." I'm thinking, Gee, thanks Ma, I could have never guess. How about we announce to the world that my father is dead, you think they'll feel sorry?! Then the mother said "Anyway, that all ended when he got killed in the accident." and then it had said "It hurt Jabber to listen to her reminding him about it... but it was the first time she had really laid it out" First time? You're kidding. If that was the first time, I have twelve children and my name is Barbra. I'm still wondering if he means the father thing or the fact that they want him to play football. Either way this was just a prime example of telling and not showing when it should be the other way around.

2) Apparently the word "fagged" means "exhausted" in the U.K. but to use that word in an American children's book is awful. Kids would assume that main character, Jabber, had just gotten sexually assaulted by Mel who had just ran into him in that game!

3) Have you ever hear the saying "Speak of the Devil"? How about the one that's in the book, "Speak about the Devil"? Never hear that before, and I'll never use it.

4) You know what Jabber's brother does for fun-- other than football? Hang-gliding. How may high-schoolers do you know who live in the northeast and hang-gild? 1? 3? How about none. And then Pete, the brother, almost kills himself in gusty winds. Boy, that smart!

5) The book ended in the most fake way possible. For no apparent reason at all, Pete tells Jabber he can play whatever he wants and doesn't have to be football. What's up with that? And the mother still doesn't say anything because she want him to be a football star. How many stars do they need? Pete's a football star and their sister is a volleyball star (but nobody knows that because nobody even goes to her games).

Somewhat interesting story line, sucky writing and unelaborated. By far one of the worst books I have ever read... would not recommend for children or anyone except classes on how to not write a children's book.

[Marawan Super · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

soccer half back is about a boy who can't decide which sport he wants to end up playing. He is tied between football and soccer and he doesn't know what he is going to keep on playing throughout High school and college. He decides to play soccer because he realizes that he is a natural and he has the most fun playing it.
I can connect this book to a lot of athletes across the world who might be moving on to college and don't know weather to try really hard to get a scholarship in soccer but enjoy football more. It is a life changing decision that a lot of sports players had to make. I can also connect this book to Wistle! because both books are bout soccer
I would recommend this book to a any kid who loves sports. It is a real life situation that kids have to make and it might inspire a kid to go out and play sports or want to play soccer.

[Destiny Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

i'm not a sports person which is why I chose 4 stars, so that may be unfair, first off. but, I really appreciate the details of the games so we can educate ourselves on sports if we want to. spoiler: my favorite part of the book was the brother ending up in the hospital & changing his heart toward his brother. it usually takes a crisis for ppl with his personality type to have a change of heart. heartwarming

[Brandon Mazeffa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book because I personally love the sport soccer. I have read many Matt Christopher books and this is one of my favorites. It has a lot of action playing soccer of course. However, it also talks a good amount about the boys life with friends and family which made it interesting. The scenes were descriptive and it was an all around good book.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick easy read. I felt sorry for the main character, who was a great soccer player, but whose family kept pushing him to switch from soccer to football because his deceased dad was a great football player.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

the story was great and can relate when you love a sport but your family likes another

[Caroline Mickey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Garbage. Basically makes no sense

[Jay Jesse]

Read w/James
Dated terminology for soccer but a nice trip down memory lane from when I read it as a boy.

[Cyrilnlisa &]

10y

[Ian Wright]

It was a good book. Needs more conflict

[nirvi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay book

[Nick Schilling]

i think people who like soccer will like this book because it is a casual book about soccer with a good conflict that stays with the main character until the end of the book , the book goes into great detail with the games he plays, if you have a good imagination you will like this book. It also is not just about soccer it goes off topic when he goes with the other characters to places you would not think
of it goes into greater detail about it to.

[Brian Alvarado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to choose over two options?. Well, in this realistic fiction book, in which I think is great. Reflects in real-life situations in which teenagers have to go through, where either you have to do what others say or do what you really want to do. Plus, not knowing which is the better decision.


It all started in soccer field, in which our protagonist Jabber Morris finds himself in a situation where he loves to play soccer, but his family wants him to play football, so he could follow his father’s steps. So after time passes, he thought about quitting soccer and get into football so he could satisfy his family, but after his family realizes Jabber needed to be himself, they support him on staying in soccer. Also, the conflict that takes place, is person vs. person because Jabber had a different opinion than his family on which sport he should play. Adding on to that, I would say that a simple theme would be to not decide the future of someone without taking into account what that person wants.


For my analysis for the book is that the conflict in between Jabber and his family, about him playing football, but since he didn’t like it, he preferred soccer, at the end his family supports him to accomplish his desire, in this case playing soccer. In which I think is the symbol of the story is having family support.

In my opinion, my favorite part was when Jabber get really confident on himself when he was playing soccer because he had his family’s support. Because after disagreeing on the sport Jabber was in. It took them a long time recognized his ability in the sport he was in, plus they realized that Jabber needed to follow his own footsteps in order to be himself and what he wanted to be.


From a scale from 1-5 stars I would give the book a rating of 4 stars, because even though I really liked the book, it included events that didn’t have anything to do with the plot of the story, in which also made the book really long. Then I would recommend this book to the people who look for books that teach them a lesson, in this case a life lesson. Plus for other people who like sport books. Finally, never stop to do something you like.

[Gabriel Serra]

In this book entitled “Soccer Half Back” written by Matt Cristopher a boy named jabber is in a conflict of chusing to play soccer instead of football. His mom wants jabber to play football because there dad played professional football and his brother also plays football. On the other hand the only person in his family that supports his choices of playing soccer is his sister. Also jabber’s uncle wants him to play football. But towards the end of the story his family finally supports his choice and motivates him to keep on playing soccer because as jabber’s brother said he was a natural at soccer. In conclusion, if you really know a lot about soccer i dont think you would like it because first i didn’t like it and the SOCCER vocabulary is not really good. For example there is quarters instead of halfs.

[Sean Castellanos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soccer halfback is a book about a kid named jabber that plays soccer but his family doesn't like that idea because there father was a big football star and he would have wanted jabber to follow in his footsteps his family tries to persuade him to play football but his heart his set on soccer and he's good at it later in the book jabber starts too fell guilty because his family got in his head about him playing football it really makes him sad to think about his dad dying in a car crash so the next game jabber plays his mind is full of questions. The next day his brother Pete had accidentally he broken his leg hang gliding so his football season was over this made jabber think more about playing football. In the end jabbers brother Pete and uncle said they were sorry for putting presser on him to play football and they told him to play soccer.

[Youraj 11-12 · Rating 4 out of 5]

1 nice book about a kid who struggles first playing soccer then becomes the best

2 intersting
3 soccer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ajay Bhandari]

name; AJAY BHANDARI
topic; SOCCER HALFBOOK

jabber morris is had a heart set on playing soocer.
and his family want him to paly a soccer.
his father is a football player he love to watch a football and he loved to paly soocer before he dead.
a tough sistuation is made even more difficult thing when suspicion of stealing a wallet falls on a solders.
i recommend to people who want to play make a soccer player

[Alexis Palma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book if you are one of those people who like to read about sports and making decisions. Soccer halfback is a book about a middle school teen who is having trouble deciding which sport to pick either football or soccer. All of his family wants him to play the sport that his father played when he was in college but also wants to play soccer the sport that he is naturally giften with.

[Hugocnca · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book Soccer Halfback is about how Jabber is being pressured to play football like all his family. The only one that wants him to play is his sister. His uncle, his brother, his dad played football throughout thier life. Now he is pressured through all his first year of playing soccer. Will this cange or will it stay the stame.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because I'm working on a book that includes a soccer player who switches to football in high school. This book was shallower than I'd hoped but did include some great play by play descriptions of soccer games and was a very quick read. I'm guessing that there are some 6th, 7th and 8 grade boys who are reluctant readers that might enjoy this.

[Sean Gresham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great read for 3rd-5th grade soccer lovers. It touches upon issues that I could relate to like football vs. soccer or any other sport for that matter. It discusses personal tragedy as Jabber's father died while Jabber was still a child. This could be a special book for a student going through the loss of a parent or if their parent does not support their hobby.

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a boy who loves to play soccor. But, will he decide to join football instead? His brother tries to convince him to join football. Will he listen to his brother or play the game he loves to play? Find out!

[Jackon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was about a kid in middle school and it was his first year playing soccer. All of his family wanted him to play football because his Dad played football at Notre Dame. I liked the book because I like soccer.

[124chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a very good book with plenty of soccer game play. There was an interesting story line a a high schooler faces the disapproval of all of him playing soccer after his father died playing pro football in a car acciedent. He has to face multiple hard decisions but ends up making the right ones.

[Colshy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yesssss :) How could I not love this

[Willow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really, really like soccer. That's why I read this book. This book was not very good though.