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Little League #4
Perfect Game
The Little League World Series is within reach
Two weeks of intense competition remain to decide the final teams for the Little League World Series. This year, the anticipation is high as it's possible that both of the previous final two teams will return, a very rare occurrence. And those are the teams Carter and Liam now play for! These two players, one from each team, are thinking the same How can I play against my best friend?
Join Liam and Carter as they work their way to the Little League World Series in this thrilling series.
Two weeks of intense competition remain to decide the final teams for the Little League World Series. This year, the anticipation is high as it's possible that both of the previous final two teams will return, a very rare occurrence. And those are the teams Carter and Liam now play for! These two players, one from each team, are thinking the same How can I play against my best friend?
Join Liam and Carter as they work their way to the Little League World Series in this thrilling series.
- GenresSports
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
32 people are currently reading
66 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.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
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.
June 30, 2023
Not an adult book. Missing the charm I felt as a kid reading books actually written by Matt Christopher. The book was pretty boring. I felt like baseball was a minor part of it. And they didn't even finish the story to let you know what happens in the Little League world series. Definitely worth skipping but I was curious what Matt Christopher books are like after Matt Christopher died.
August 5, 2019
I'm not ready for book 5
August 12, 2025
Anticipation is building for the fifth and final book. How can Liam and Carter play against each other in the LLWS?? I would give it three stars but I'm pretty sure a younger me would give it four.
February 23, 2017
Anthony Matteis
Title: Little League Perfect Game
Genre: A fictional sports story
Author: Matt Christopher
Synopsis:
Discussions, which are brought out into the open, develop between Liam McGrath and Philip DiMaggio during the qualification games for the Little League World Series. As the World Series game is getting closer the excitement by both Liam and Carter grows as the two cousins could be facing each other in Williamsport. How will they feel if they have to play against each other is the question they keep asking themselves.
A problem that Phillip encounters is trying to figure out a way not to wipe his face before throwing his best pitch, the changeup. Ash figures this out while watching a video of Phillip and tells Carter and the rest of the Forest Park team. Carter’s problem is how is he going to tell Liam that his entire team knows about Phillip’s changeup signal.
Liam McGrath, Carter's cousin is my favorite character because he had the courage to shake Phillip’s hand and to put all their history behind them and become friends and teammates.
My favorite part in the book is when Carter explains to Liam why he showed Ash the hideout that Carter and Liam shared between them since they were little boys. Carter tells Liam he did it because he felt compassion for Ash since Ash didn't have his father around. Carter explains to Liam that Ash will never get to feel the love a father gives to his son after a game.
I wouldn't change the ending because to me it is the perfect way to lead into the next book.
I think the author is trying to tell us that when you set a goal on achieving something, you shouldn't make petty differences interfere with your main objective, which is helping your team win the game.
I would recommend this book because it shows that compassion for other players should be at the forefront of any competition.
A passage in this book which I thought was powerful is when Carter’s father says to Carter... “what happens tomorrow”- he shrugged- “well, you can either let today’s loss bring you down or use it to bolster your determination. Which is it going to be?”
Title: Little League Perfect Game
Genre: A fictional sports story
Author: Matt Christopher
Synopsis:
Discussions, which are brought out into the open, develop between Liam McGrath and Philip DiMaggio during the qualification games for the Little League World Series. As the World Series game is getting closer the excitement by both Liam and Carter grows as the two cousins could be facing each other in Williamsport. How will they feel if they have to play against each other is the question they keep asking themselves.
A problem that Phillip encounters is trying to figure out a way not to wipe his face before throwing his best pitch, the changeup. Ash figures this out while watching a video of Phillip and tells Carter and the rest of the Forest Park team. Carter’s problem is how is he going to tell Liam that his entire team knows about Phillip’s changeup signal.
Liam McGrath, Carter's cousin is my favorite character because he had the courage to shake Phillip’s hand and to put all their history behind them and become friends and teammates.
My favorite part in the book is when Carter explains to Liam why he showed Ash the hideout that Carter and Liam shared between them since they were little boys. Carter tells Liam he did it because he felt compassion for Ash since Ash didn't have his father around. Carter explains to Liam that Ash will never get to feel the love a father gives to his son after a game.
I wouldn't change the ending because to me it is the perfect way to lead into the next book.
I think the author is trying to tell us that when you set a goal on achieving something, you shouldn't make petty differences interfere with your main objective, which is helping your team win the game.
I would recommend this book because it shows that compassion for other players should be at the forefront of any competition.
A passage in this book which I thought was powerful is when Carter’s father says to Carter... “what happens tomorrow”- he shrugged- “well, you can either let today’s loss bring you down or use it to bolster your determination. Which is it going to be?”
June 8, 2015
The book Perfect Game by Matt Chistopher is a great book about two cousins who are best friends but one of them moved away to another state. They play Baseball for Little League and made the allstar teams. The cousin that moved to another state is faced with the challenge of playing with his enemy and they work together to help eachother to get better and at the end they are happy they had some troubles when they first meet because it pushed them to work harder to become better friends and teamates. while the other cousin had done some stuff that made eachother mad but was to help out a friend. They also do what they would do for good luck before games with other teamates and were both regretful of it
August 26, 2014
AWESOME!!
AWESOME!!
Really good book for people who play little league and are ages 9-12. This book is definitely one of my favorite books I have ever read. You should really read this book:)
AWESOME!!
Really good book for people who play little league and are ages 9-12. This book is definitely one of my favorite books I have ever read. You should really read this book:)
April 29, 2015
Awesome
Great,great,great!!!!! Can't get better than this!!! Keep it up Christopher! Can't wait to read the next book. Really looking forward to it. :)
Great,great,great!!!!! Can't get better than this!!! Keep it up Christopher! Can't wait to read the next book. Really looking forward to it. :)
July 14, 2015
Frgryutrfh
Fight,fgsdtcthdcthdgcctdcghcvtgyct a gvfdtcff Goff v v :) g g g g t g gym govt t g,ttc t. T. Yv
Fight,fgsdtcthdcthdgcctdcghcvtgyct a gvfdtcff Goff v v :) g g g g t g gym govt t g,ttc t. T. Yv
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews