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Soccer Hero
This beloved sports classic tells the story of an ordinary boy who loves his friends and teammates—and suddenly becomes a hero after a single afternoon turns his life upside down.
Rob Lasher is just an ordinary soccer player, good at the game, but not great. Then one afternoon, he saves his coach's life in front of all his teammates. Suddenly, he's the team's hero. As some members of his team and the rest of the town continue to laud Rob's heroic act, Rob realizes he doesn't want the attention and any unearned accolades that come with it. Kids will learn that doing what is right should be the norm, not the exception.
Rob Lasher is just an ordinary soccer player, good at the game, but not great. Then one afternoon, he saves his coach's life in front of all his teammates. Suddenly, he's the team's hero. As some members of his team and the rest of the town continue to laud Rob's heroic act, Rob realizes he doesn't want the attention and any unearned accolades that come with it. Kids will learn that doing what is right should be the norm, not the exception.
96 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2007
25 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
426 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 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 29, 2015
I liked this book because it shows that just because you did something good doesn't mean you want to be a hero. This book is a perfect example of that.
June 26, 2017
Soccer Hero Book Review
Soccer Hero Written by Matt Christopher written and publish on 1st Sep. 2007 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers was an interesting book about a young boy named Rob Lasher (the main character) who is seen as a “hero” in his town and some of his teammates Benji, Dmitri, Scott and Coach Brennan. The novel is a sports genre and is set at the soccer pitch and occasionally at the players school.
Matt Christopher the author of ‘Soccer Hero’ was born August 16, 1917 in Bath, Pennsylvania, United Staes. Before writing the novel ‘Soccer Hero’ Matt had his mind set on other things as he was playing baseball for a Class C minor-league team in Smith Falls, Ontario. Also selling umbrellas, driving trucks and working in theatres. Matt started on his writing career in 1940, when he wrote many sports novels for children. Detective Box Magazine accepted Matt’s novel in 1943, His first the children's novel was The Lucky Baseball Bat, published in 1954 and was in print for over 20 years. Matt Christopher then became a best-selling author fro children writing over fifty sports novels and is now know for his love of sport. Some of his work consists of Baseball Turnaround, Soccer duel, Slam Dunk and Catch That Pass. He wrote up to 78 novels overall and 250 magazine short stories. Matt sadly passes away 20 September 1997.
Rob Lasher is just an ordinary soccer play for the pirates soccer team, good at the game, but not the best. Until Rob saves the life on his coach in front of his teams mates and members of the town and the becomes the team’s hero. Rob is constantly applauded by all, but he finds out he doesn’t want the attention and doesn’t deserve it.
My favourite part of the book was when the team worked out all the problems about who their coach would be and who would be captain. I liked this part of the book as it was enjoyable and I liked reading about the team playing well together and winning their games “Coach Stan was bubbling with excitement, saying over and over how pleased he was to be apart of such a terrific team”.
I enjoyed reading the novel and I kept wanting to know what would happen next, to keep of turning the page. But at times the book did drag a little bit as they would always have to deal with the same problems.
I would recommend this book to anyone who plays sports (most preferably soccer players) between the ages of 8 - 14 years old as it is enjoy for all people and is an easy read. Some other novels similar would be any spots novel written by Matt Christopher.
Soccer Hero Written by Matt Christopher written and publish on 1st Sep. 2007 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers was an interesting book about a young boy named Rob Lasher (the main character) who is seen as a “hero” in his town and some of his teammates Benji, Dmitri, Scott and Coach Brennan. The novel is a sports genre and is set at the soccer pitch and occasionally at the players school.
Matt Christopher the author of ‘Soccer Hero’ was born August 16, 1917 in Bath, Pennsylvania, United Staes. Before writing the novel ‘Soccer Hero’ Matt had his mind set on other things as he was playing baseball for a Class C minor-league team in Smith Falls, Ontario. Also selling umbrellas, driving trucks and working in theatres. Matt started on his writing career in 1940, when he wrote many sports novels for children. Detective Box Magazine accepted Matt’s novel in 1943, His first the children's novel was The Lucky Baseball Bat, published in 1954 and was in print for over 20 years. Matt Christopher then became a best-selling author fro children writing over fifty sports novels and is now know for his love of sport. Some of his work consists of Baseball Turnaround, Soccer duel, Slam Dunk and Catch That Pass. He wrote up to 78 novels overall and 250 magazine short stories. Matt sadly passes away 20 September 1997.
Rob Lasher is just an ordinary soccer play for the pirates soccer team, good at the game, but not the best. Until Rob saves the life on his coach in front of his teams mates and members of the town and the becomes the team’s hero. Rob is constantly applauded by all, but he finds out he doesn’t want the attention and doesn’t deserve it.
My favourite part of the book was when the team worked out all the problems about who their coach would be and who would be captain. I liked this part of the book as it was enjoyable and I liked reading about the team playing well together and winning their games “Coach Stan was bubbling with excitement, saying over and over how pleased he was to be apart of such a terrific team”.
I enjoyed reading the novel and I kept wanting to know what would happen next, to keep of turning the page. But at times the book did drag a little bit as they would always have to deal with the same problems.
I would recommend this book to anyone who plays sports (most preferably soccer players) between the ages of 8 - 14 years old as it is enjoy for all people and is an easy read. Some other novels similar would be any spots novel written by Matt Christopher.
January 23, 2018
Soccer Hero was a good book, but I wish it was a little bit longer. Besides that it is a great book. Rob Lasher saves the life of Coach Brennan, But unfortunately, Coach Brennan has to retire from coach of the pirates due to his heart attack. Rob gets his story all over the newspaper and is a local hero, but there still is a problem. The Pirates need a new coach. Thanks to the newspaper article Coach Benoit is there coach, but he knows nothing about soccer. So they select Benji -a true leader of their team- to be their captain. Eventually, the pirates are restored and go on to be a very successful team.
October 12, 2025
This is another book by Matt Christopher on soccer.
The hero of this book is Rob Lasher. He becomes a hero because when his soccer coach - Coach Brennan - suffers a heart attack - Rob performs CPR and saves his life.
A reporter interviews him and after that he feels that his life has become miserable. Everyone calls him a hero. He becomes Captain of his soccer team under the new coach
The hero of this book is Rob Lasher. He becomes a hero because when his soccer coach - Coach Brennan - suffers a heart attack - Rob performs CPR and saves his life.
A reporter interviews him and after that he feels that his life has become miserable. Everyone calls him a hero. He becomes Captain of his soccer team under the new coach
November 16, 2018
The book was good and all but I think that the plot lasted so little! I didn’t enjoy it much because it was mostly just practice. Although good dialogue I am a little edgy about recommending it. But if you like soccer you would like this book. I like soccer and I liked it a little. But overall I would give a 75%
January 29, 2019
The beginning, middle and end were very interesting in this book. Once I got the book, I couldn’t stop reading especially when the kid saving the coaches life. This book was rated 4/5 because it wasn’t 100% interesting. It was 89% interesting because the middle kind of bore me but I’m the end, it is very cool. Amen. Happy.
February 15, 2019
I like the action and story of this book. It goes from a kid saving his coach to getting hated on. It shows how Rob bounces back from that event. I like how the author narrates the soccer scenes and how fast-paced it is. Rob puts his team above himself by stepping down from a captain position that requires leadership.
March 15, 2019
A kid saving his coach to getting hated on, it means a lot. It shows how Rob rebounds back from that event. I adore how the author visualizes the game scenes and how fast-paced they are. Rob puts his team above his own position. I recommend this book to everyone because it gives lot of great lessons.
August 30, 2018
Enjoyed reading about soccer.
March 13, 2023
I remember reading this as a kid, and the only thing I remember was that the heart attack scene traumatized me lmao, even though the couch survives.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 18, 2024
I used this to tutor a reluctant reader, and he fell in love with it!!
March 29, 2015
Soccer Hero: This book was about a boy named rob who loved to play the great sport of soccer but at his first soccer practice of the season something bad happened! His coach had a heart attack but rob, with great instinct saved his life! Once the coach got to the hospital he was fine but now the team had not coach! They put a article in the newspaper asking for a new coach and they got one! His name was Coach Stan! At the second game of the year there old coach came and watched their game and they won for the coach!
My opinion for this book is a good one because it kept me in to the book with all of the action but at some points it was scary that he was going to die. It was very good though. I like soccer so I understood exactly what was happening.
My recommendation for this book is for the people of the age from 10-16 and people that like sports and like action. If they don't know anything about soccer it might not be very understanding but it would still be very good for them! It's a great book!
My opinion for this book is a good one because it kept me in to the book with all of the action but at some points it was scary that he was going to die. It was very good though. I like soccer so I understood exactly what was happening.
My recommendation for this book is for the people of the age from 10-16 and people that like sports and like action. If they don't know anything about soccer it might not be very understanding but it would still be very good for them! It's a great book!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Currently reading
April 21, 2011It a good book so far
October 10, 2016
It was an okay book, I liked it but I didn't think it was very good. The storyline was the part I didn't like. The reason I read it was because it's about soccer.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews