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Little League #2
District Doubleheader
Little League Baseball players Liam and Carter are still adjusting to changes since Liam's family moved across the country to California. Liam is faced with having to prove himself all over again to his new teammates. Carter, on the other hand, is having his best season ever. His pitches are unstoppable and it looks like his team might just sweep the competition. That is, until a new pitcher hits the scene – Rachel joins the all-boy team and proves she’s a force to be reckoned with!
- GenresSportsRealistic Fiction
1 pages, Audio CD
First published January 1, 2013
29 people are currently reading
79 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
467 books141 followersMatt 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 3, 2022
Such a great series for baseball lovers! My boys love it!
July 19, 2015
My 9 year old rated this a four star .
May 22, 2017
For your students who love baseball this is a great book to get them reading.
January 6, 2021
i want it free >:(
August 12, 2025
The stakes aren't as high in the games in this book, but it is a great start to both Liam and Carter's, twelve year old run.
May 20, 2020
This is a review for the whole five-book series, since it is a single story and the individual books do not necessarily offer a sense of conclusion. They need to be read in order:
1) Little League: Play Ball!
2) District Doubleheader
3) State Showdown
4) Perfect Game
5) Baseball World Series
I was quite pleased with this one. I thought it's easily my favorite of the several Matt Christopher stories I have read, and then I realized it's not actually written by Matt Christopher, since he died 16 years before this book was published. Apparently, Matt Christopher has become a franchise, and other writers are publishing under his name. These books are actually written by Stephanie True Peters.
Anyway, this is exactly what I ask of sport books for boys. It's easy to read for young readers, even reluctant ones, it has plenty of baseball action for those who love sports, and the baseball play is balanced with interesting drama for the characters. The series is about two cousins who have lived next to each other all their lives. They are like brothers and best friends, they love baseball and are good playing together. Their team makes it to the final of the American side of the Little League World series, where they meet a very strong opponent who had humiliated one of our heroes in the past and behaves in an arrogant manner.
Later, one of the cousins has to move away with his family, and they move to the same city where that former rival lives. The cousins miss each other a lot, and even though they keep in contact, they have to cope with the difficult experience of moving on and making new friends. I thought the whole thing was handled well, depicting realistically the difficulties of making new friends when you feel guilty for "replacing" your best friend, as if you are betraying him.
Both Carter and Liam are likable kids and I was rooting for them. I was always looking forward to reading more and finding out what happens next. As the boys' teams progressed in their respective little leagues, there was the possibility that if both of them made it to the world series again, they might end up having to play against each other.
1) Little League: Play Ball!
2) District Doubleheader
3) State Showdown
4) Perfect Game
5) Baseball World Series
I was quite pleased with this one. I thought it's easily my favorite of the several Matt Christopher stories I have read, and then I realized it's not actually written by Matt Christopher, since he died 16 years before this book was published. Apparently, Matt Christopher has become a franchise, and other writers are publishing under his name. These books are actually written by Stephanie True Peters.
Anyway, this is exactly what I ask of sport books for boys. It's easy to read for young readers, even reluctant ones, it has plenty of baseball action for those who love sports, and the baseball play is balanced with interesting drama for the characters. The series is about two cousins who have lived next to each other all their lives. They are like brothers and best friends, they love baseball and are good playing together. Their team makes it to the final of the American side of the Little League World series, where they meet a very strong opponent who had humiliated one of our heroes in the past and behaves in an arrogant manner.
Later, one of the cousins has to move away with his family, and they move to the same city where that former rival lives. The cousins miss each other a lot, and even though they keep in contact, they have to cope with the difficult experience of moving on and making new friends. I thought the whole thing was handled well, depicting realistically the difficulties of making new friends when you feel guilty for "replacing" your best friend, as if you are betraying him.
Both Carter and Liam are likable kids and I was rooting for them. I was always looking forward to reading more and finding out what happens next. As the boys' teams progressed in their respective little leagues, there was the possibility that if both of them made it to the world series again, they might end up having to play against each other.
November 23, 2016
November
District Doubleheader
By: Matt Christopher
The book District Doubleheader is a amazing and great book with a lot of events and characters. The District Doubleheader is the second book of a series called Little League. The main characters of this book are Liam, Ash, Carter. Liam is a catcher who moved from Pennsylvania to California and his best friend is Carter. Liam and Carter are really good friends because back in Pennsylvania they were on the same little league team for years and Liam was Carter catcher when Carter would pitch. They were such good friends that they called each other cousins. They also lived 2 doors down from each other when Liam lived in Pennsylvania. Carter is a pitcher who lives in Pennsylvania and his best friend is Liam. Ash is a catcher that moves into Liams house in Pennsylvania after Liam moves to California. One event is Liam moves to California. Another events is Ash moves into Liams old house and meets Carter and they become ok friends but Carter cant stop thinking about Liam because Ash live in Liams old bedroom. A third event is Ash takes over Liams job of being a catcher for Carter and know Ash is a catcher for Carter because Liam moved to California. The last event is Carter does a surprise visit to Liam in California.
The themes this book presented were really good themes that could help you out and that could teach you a lot. The first theme is, every where you go you will meet someone. How I know this is a theme is because its a negative for Liam and he ends up making a tone of friends in California. How this is a negative for Liam is when he finds out that he is moving he says, " I wont have any friends in California". The second theme is, don't let one bad thing ruin all the good things. How I know this is a theme is because when Liam moves to California his baseball skills go down and he stops being a really good hitter. What made his skill go down was his nervousness because when he moved he thought he would make no friends and they would make fun of him. Overall I think this is a really good book.
District Doubleheader
By: Matt Christopher
The book District Doubleheader is a amazing and great book with a lot of events and characters. The District Doubleheader is the second book of a series called Little League. The main characters of this book are Liam, Ash, Carter. Liam is a catcher who moved from Pennsylvania to California and his best friend is Carter. Liam and Carter are really good friends because back in Pennsylvania they were on the same little league team for years and Liam was Carter catcher when Carter would pitch. They were such good friends that they called each other cousins. They also lived 2 doors down from each other when Liam lived in Pennsylvania. Carter is a pitcher who lives in Pennsylvania and his best friend is Liam. Ash is a catcher that moves into Liams house in Pennsylvania after Liam moves to California. One event is Liam moves to California. Another events is Ash moves into Liams old house and meets Carter and they become ok friends but Carter cant stop thinking about Liam because Ash live in Liams old bedroom. A third event is Ash takes over Liams job of being a catcher for Carter and know Ash is a catcher for Carter because Liam moved to California. The last event is Carter does a surprise visit to Liam in California.
The themes this book presented were really good themes that could help you out and that could teach you a lot. The first theme is, every where you go you will meet someone. How I know this is a theme is because its a negative for Liam and he ends up making a tone of friends in California. How this is a negative for Liam is when he finds out that he is moving he says, " I wont have any friends in California". The second theme is, don't let one bad thing ruin all the good things. How I know this is a theme is because when Liam moves to California his baseball skills go down and he stops being a really good hitter. What made his skill go down was his nervousness because when he moved he thought he would make no friends and they would make fun of him. Overall I think this is a really good book.
July 9, 2015
Under ordinary circumstances I would never read this book, but my two sons and I listened to the audiobook on a road trip and it really wasn't bad. My sons absolutely loved it, which is all that really matters.
November 2, 2013
This is really really really good book
July 5, 2015
Book
good book after c.f. c.f. :) d :) c.f. c.f. Chan bc c.f. c.f. jvdg :-(b chin Chan chi fight Hannah entrenched
good book after c.f. c.f. :) d :) c.f. c.f. Chan bc c.f. c.f. jvdg :-(b chin Chan chi fight Hannah entrenched
July 23, 2019
Good times like usual, liked the new characters!!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews