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Long Arm Quarterback
Cap Wadell loves football, but it seems unlikely that he'll ever get to play on a real team-his hometown is so small that there aren't enough boys in his school to fill a regulation squad. Then his grandfather tells him how he solved that same problem years before: He and his schoolmates started a six-man football league. If Cap wants to do the same thing, Grandpa will be happy to help. He'll even coach the team if the league gets off the ground. It does, and soon Cap and his friends are learning the rules of six-man football. Cap is in competition for the starting quarterback spot with Jimmy Cash, but that's not a problem. What is a problem is that Grandpa and Jimmy's grandfather have reignited an old football feud. When their rivalry starts to affect the team, Cap wonders if the team will survive. For a complete list of all of Matt Christopher's titles, please turn to the last pages of this book.
144 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1999
18 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
438 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 29, 2013
In the book the main character cap loves football but he has never got to play because his school is too small for an actual football team.But his grandpa tells him about how he used to play six man football.His grandpa would be happy to help cap establish a club with the school.They start a league and on the team they have a competition for quarterback Cap and Jimmy Cash.Jimmy Cash's grandpa is one of the coaches for their team and Caps grandpa is to and they aren't friends.But because of them not being good friends it affects their team.
January 12, 2018
Personal response
I really enjoyed this book because it showed that you have to work as a team to win games. This book went over how important it is to be friends with each other, so you can work together. It's very interesting how Cap's grandpa showed Sable that he isn't the head coach of the team.
Plot
Cap and his friends were at his grandpa's house, and they all wanted to play real football but knew they wouldn't be able to because there town was so small that they didn't have enough people for a full team. His grandpa then came out and said that they could try setting up a six-man team and play with other towns. It ended up working and they had a team. After all the fields got set up around the town's, practice started up and they had 7 players, so they asked some girls to help them practice. Jimmy's dad, Sable, didn't like Cap's grandpa because when they played football, they were on separate teams during the championship game. Sable is still mad about how the game turned out because their team lost. Cap's grandpa agreed to let him become assistant coach for the team even though he didn't want him to. As practice was happening, Sable kept on making Jimmy be quarterback because he was his kid. Cap's grandpa didn't like that happening but every time he put Cap in as quarterback, Sable kept on saying how bad he was. Their first scrimmage Cap started out as quarterback and Sable wasn't happy. They switched throughout the game and they lost in the end. Cap was getting mad about how Sable was always putting Jimmy in. The next few practices, Sable kept on doing the same thing. The next game Cap's grandpa bruised his arm really bad after falling from the roof, so they would be late to the game. That meant that Sable would have to be head coach. They ended up getting there at halftime and the score was 20-0. When Sable saw them, he said that he wasn't ready to be a head coach and let Cap's grandpa coach the rest of the game. They ended up losing by one. Sable said sorry about how he was acting and now they get along better.
Characterization
Cap is the kid that wanted to start the six-man team in the first place. He thought he would be the full time quarterback until Jimmy wanted to play. Sable is Jimmy's dad and is still mad at Cap's grandpa for winning years ago. He also thinks he is the head coach, so he bosses everyone around. Cap's grandpa is the nice one who is the head coach on the team and is fair with everyone unlike Sable.
Recommendations
I would recommend this book to high school level people and also people who like football. It's on the shorter end of books and it's not that hard to read. People will really enjoy this book if they like books that have a problem that has to be solved in it.
I really enjoyed this book because it showed that you have to work as a team to win games. This book went over how important it is to be friends with each other, so you can work together. It's very interesting how Cap's grandpa showed Sable that he isn't the head coach of the team.
Plot
Cap and his friends were at his grandpa's house, and they all wanted to play real football but knew they wouldn't be able to because there town was so small that they didn't have enough people for a full team. His grandpa then came out and said that they could try setting up a six-man team and play with other towns. It ended up working and they had a team. After all the fields got set up around the town's, practice started up and they had 7 players, so they asked some girls to help them practice. Jimmy's dad, Sable, didn't like Cap's grandpa because when they played football, they were on separate teams during the championship game. Sable is still mad about how the game turned out because their team lost. Cap's grandpa agreed to let him become assistant coach for the team even though he didn't want him to. As practice was happening, Sable kept on making Jimmy be quarterback because he was his kid. Cap's grandpa didn't like that happening but every time he put Cap in as quarterback, Sable kept on saying how bad he was. Their first scrimmage Cap started out as quarterback and Sable wasn't happy. They switched throughout the game and they lost in the end. Cap was getting mad about how Sable was always putting Jimmy in. The next few practices, Sable kept on doing the same thing. The next game Cap's grandpa bruised his arm really bad after falling from the roof, so they would be late to the game. That meant that Sable would have to be head coach. They ended up getting there at halftime and the score was 20-0. When Sable saw them, he said that he wasn't ready to be a head coach and let Cap's grandpa coach the rest of the game. They ended up losing by one. Sable said sorry about how he was acting and now they get along better.
Characterization
Cap is the kid that wanted to start the six-man team in the first place. He thought he would be the full time quarterback until Jimmy wanted to play. Sable is Jimmy's dad and is still mad at Cap's grandpa for winning years ago. He also thinks he is the head coach, so he bosses everyone around. Cap's grandpa is the nice one who is the head coach on the team and is fair with everyone unlike Sable.
Recommendations
I would recommend this book to high school level people and also people who like football. It's on the shorter end of books and it's not that hard to read. People will really enjoy this book if they like books that have a problem that has to be solved in it.
Read
January 9, 2015Cap Wadell lives in a very small town. Cap loves football. Cap and his grandpa are very close. When Cap tells his grandpa about how they can't have a football team at school, his grandpa has an idea. His grandpa becomes a coach for a six person football team. Jimmy Cash is competing against Cap for the starting quarterback spot. Things start to take a turn when an old football feud arises.
Cap gets frustrated easily. He is good at football. He has a bit of a temper.
Jimmy is a running back. He is very fast. He is coachable.
Sam can handle adversity. He is also fast. He is a wide receiver.
Grandpa Wadell is the coach. He is very compassionate. He loves football.
He played in the NFL.
I rate this book an easy 4 1/2. This book was easy to relate to. I like that it was about sports. This book was very interesting and suspenseful. I would recommend this book to teenage males because this book is about football. This book is a very easy read. Anyone should be able to read this book.
Cap gets frustrated easily. He is good at football. He has a bit of a temper.
Jimmy is a running back. He is very fast. He is coachable.
Sam can handle adversity. He is also fast. He is a wide receiver.
Grandpa Wadell is the coach. He is very compassionate. He loves football.
He played in the NFL.
I rate this book an easy 4 1/2. This book was easy to relate to. I like that it was about sports. This book was very interesting and suspenseful. I would recommend this book to teenage males because this book is about football. This book is a very easy read. Anyone should be able to read this book.
October 17, 2019
i recommend this book if you live in a small town and really like footbal its a good book. it was good i like it when u had to speed up your reading because of the football games its really a good sports book for kids and teenagers i like that it was a chapter book cause if it waas not then this book whould not have made it so far i really do recommed that u read it
October 31, 2019
I didn't like this book because the author took a while to explain everything.
May 1, 2015
i gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars because in the beginning of the book it was a little confusing because it got right into the action before it said the characters name.there is a boy named cap who wanted to play football but they didn't have enough players to play 11 on 11 so they got together with other schools to have a 6 on 6 football team.After all that happened cap wanted to be a quartback but he had to earn it because there was a kid named jimmy who was good too.
October 25, 2010
Hut,this book would be a great book for anyone to read not just guys.It will show you that you can do anything you want if you try.
March 18, 2011
I liked this book the first time i read it but the second time i read it i didnt really like it. It is kind of a stupid pointless book.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews