The Hockey Machine

by Matt Christopher

THE HOCKEY MACHINE Can Steve escape his kidnappers? After leading his hockey team to victory one afternoon, Steve Crandall accepts a ride home in the limousine of an avid fan his own age. Steve is surprised to learn that his fan is a multimillionaire and boy genius, but even more startling is the rich kid's proposal that Steve play center on his professional junior hockey team. Before Steve can respond or even consult his parents, he is flown to the team headquarters-where he soon discovers he's the multimillionaire's prisoner!

Genres: Sports, Fiction, Childrens, Hockey

137 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

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

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Things in this book that I expected from a Matt Christopher book: 53 of the 137 pages are descriptions of playing hockey.

That's all. (And thinking about it, 39% of the book being sports seems a little low.)

I was not a sports kid. Before this, the only Matt Christopher book I'd read was On the Ice With... Tara Lipinski. I assumed his books were about normal kids playing sports and having normal problems with family members or friendships or teamwork. Maybe most of them are, but the blurb on the back made it clear this book was not.

This book's plot was BONKERS. The main character (Steve, a hockey prodigy) ignores every stranger danger lesson he's ever received and ends up maybe-drugged (I feel that's what's implied when Steve's extremely tired after eating the dinner he's given and doesn't notice the car going the wrong direction.), kidnapped, and forced to join an elite hockey academy where he's allowed no contact with the outside world, including his parents. If Steve acts unhappy, he's forced to skip meals and threatened with having his pay withheld from his parents. When he tries to escape, they put him in solitary confinement for 48 hours. (This is glossed over in two pages!)

Through it all, Steve is understandably uneasy, but still apparently willing to ignore it all anytime he's given the opportunity to play hockey? This was wild to me, but I've never been someone who eats, sleeps, and breathes sports. In the end, Steve is the first kid who figures out how to get word out to the world and get himself rescued. (Oh hey, something else I expected from this book--the main character saves the day!)

I can't say I liked it, but I can't say I didn't like it either, since I wasn't treating it like a serious read. I'm going to have to read the backs of more Matt Christopher books to see if any others are this unhinged.

[Kayleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I truly don’t know how to feel about this book. So I’m not really a big sports person and I definitely don’t know anything about hockey but honestly those scene were the most interesting of this whole book. This book is so unbelievable. I know sometimes you have to suspend your disbelief in books but this was just too unbelievable. The book also just needed to be longer. The plot didn’t feel like it had time to fully flesh itself out and the ending just seemed rushed. Honestly I also didn’t really care about the plot in between the hockey games because it was so boring. I think if the book was longer and had more time to flesh out the plot it could have been more interesting to me. Overall the book was ok but not something I would read again.

[Gabriel Desjardins · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is possibly the worst book I have ever encountered in my life. It starts with a hockey game where the author uses a slew of incorrect terminology, like calling goals 'points'. Then the protagonist, who's 13, inexplicably has no ride home from the game, which sets the stage for him to be kidnapped by another teenager in a limo. Then he somehow ends up on a "professional kids team" in Indiana.

One hilarious thing about this book is how so many of the characters are always referred to by their full names: "Kenneth Agard Jr" never becomes Ken. If the book wasn't from 1986, you'd assume it was written by ChatGPT.

I am poorer for having read even this far into the book. I regret taking it out of a little free library. Do not, under any circumstances, read this book.

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

I grew up reading Matt Christopher books. I still own my 1962 copy of "Crackerjack Halfback" I got through the Weekly Reader Book Club. Christopher's books generally have a 1960s innocence. They almost always end with some kind of moral about fair play and friendship. Adults other than coaches regularly play a secondary role in the storylines because the books are about kids for kids.

Love all of them. Until this one. "The Hockey Machine" isn't up to Christopher's usual standards. Farfetched? Unquestionably. But also disturbingly dark. My internal alarms started going off the by page 11. A veiled fantasy sports story about child kidnapping and enslavement is not a children's storyline. It's a conversation between parents and their children.

[Katt Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving 3 stars for the descriptions of the hockey games alone. But the story of Steven Crandell and how he comes to be kidnapped to play with a special team of hockey players is so far-fetched that even with massive suspension of disbelief I had problems with this story. What's worse, is that there was so much opportunity for Steve to grow as a character in the course of this book, that was never taken.

So what this becomes then is hockey with only a hint of story - beautiful detailed descriptions of playing the game by someone who obviously loves the game, but has no idea how to really write an engaging story, which is a shame.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like a kid again! I loved reading Matt Christopher books as a kid, the sports and mystery together. When this one popped up on our free library shelf at the school I teach at I couldn’t pass it up. Such a fun read on a cold iced in day.

[Eric]

this book really was not my type of book because i don´t really like hockey but i would suggest this book to anyone who does like hockey

[Mj · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked the idea and premise of this book, but the execution didn't do it for me. So much play by play, I wanted more of the meat of the story. My hockey playing student liked it!

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could have accepted the kid villain, Kenneth Agard Jr. -- kidnapping other youngsters to play as slaves on his hockey team -- if the book had taken a campy tone. But, seriously? Even Christopher's hallmark, lovingly detailed play-by-play accounts of sports matches, didn't seem up to his usual standard in this novel. But as in the past, my offspring differ vociferously from my opinion of the Matt Christopher opus.

[Seth P · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t really like this book because there isn’t really anything good in the book. I really enjoyed reading this book because it was kind of funny. I think that this book would be a great kid’s book to read for most people. This book is really funny at some points but most of the time its bullying.

[Haadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hockey Machine interested me not only since I like hockey, but also because the plot thickens from thinking a fan is completely harmless to thinking he is a psycho kidnapper! At the beginning I was a bit confused but later thanks to that plot thickening I finally understood.

I would recommend this book to somebody who likes hockey, twists [in books], and suspense.

[Trever · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book. If you like hockey, you would like it too. Matt Christopher is one of my favorite writers. I picked this out because I like hockey AND Matt Christopher. Matt Christopher writes many different books. He writes a lot of sports books and sports are my favorite things to do. I would recommend this to people who like sports.

[Sean Adshead · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read this book around August-September of 2022. From what I remember, I was very interested in this book, and although it could be confusing at times, I was invested in the plot from start to finish. I was lenient on the amount of stars this book deserved, but decided 3 stars would be best based off of re-read factors.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

My book was about a hockey player and he's going through some tough times with his parents.

The aouther is Matt Christopher

The setting is Canada

The main character is Steve and his parents.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

crosby-esque kid is kidnapped and forced to play professional junior hockey. perfect young adult reading for the hockey fanatic.

[Bobby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned self confidence and hockey knowledge in this book. its very good but i felt like a 6th grader while reading this.

[Dan Graham # 24]

probably the greatest book ever made :)

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read basically all of Matt Christopher's sports fiction books when I was in elementary school...yes, I even liked sports back then.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

creepy hockey story from the master.

[Deborah Harris]

AR Quiz No. 5368 EN Fiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: MG - BL: 4.8 - AR Pts: 3.0
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP, VP

[Hillvan]

790L

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good writing, great sports action...but the plot is a bit weird.

[Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think the book was ok but it got better at the end.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's....farftastic!
Awesome book!