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The Fox Steals Home
Already troubled by his parents' divorce, Bobby Canfield is further distressed when he learns that his father, who has coached him in running bases, intends to move away.
178 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
7 people are currently reading
84 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 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 17, 2016
The Fox Steals Home is about a young boy by the name of Bobby who's parent's have gotten divorced. Bobby takes it pretty hard. He has always had a good relationship with his dad, but when his parent's got divorced, he was only allowed to see him on the weekends. This devastated Bobby. The first weekend they got to actually spend time together was after one of Bobby's games, where he stole a base. He decided that day that he was going to try and be the best base stealer on the field. Bobby practices and ends up getting pretty good at base stealing. He stole a total of six bases throughout the season and was only gotten out twice. Because he was so good at stealing, some boys started calling him Fox and the name stuck. After one of his games, his father introduces him to his new girlfriend. His new girlfriend is the mother of Walter, the best pitcher in little league. Bobby is surprised when Walter shows up to his mom's house later that day and asks to go for a boat ride. Bobby agrees to bring him on a ride. When they are out on the boat though, Bobby turns around to Walter trying to light up a cigarette. He tells him that there is no smoking. Walter throws the cigarette out, but it hits the gas tank, and the boat starts on fire. The boys jump out of the boat moments before it explodes. When Bobby's dad is talking to him about the explosion is when he brings up that he is going to be leaving for a year, and if he likes it, he might stay longer. The next baseball game, Bobby gets on base in the last inning, and steals second, third, and home, to win the game. After the game, his Dad tells him that he is still going to go, but he for sure will be back after a year. Bobby is comforted by knowing that his father will be coming back. Two things I liked about this book would be that it is about sports, and it is realistic. One thing I didn't like about the book was that it was kind of cheesy at times. I would recommend this book to anybody who likes sports books.
September 23, 2016
This book is about Bobby a 12 year old baseball player who is having a hard time because his parents are in the middle of a divorce and his dad is seeing another woman. Bobby still hopes his parents can get back together and be a family again.
I would recommend this book to anyone because it talks about sports and it is a really exciting book with lots of twists and turns.
I would recommend this book to anyone because it talks about sports and it is a really exciting book with lots of twists and turns.
December 9, 2017
While Christopher is one of the best writers of adolescent sports fiction, there are many times when his stories are formulaic and predictable. In this case the title informs you what the climactic event will be. Bobby is a boy whose parents just divorced. While there is no bitter animosity, there is an undercurrent of hostility to the point where Bobby worries that if his dad comes to his baseball games, he will be in violation of the custody agreement.
Therefore, the story revolves more about Bobby’s relationship with his parents and the people in their lives. He lives with his mother and she has her female friends with their shared interests. Bobby discovers that his father is seeing a widowed woman that is the mother of a player on another team. These circumstances make this a book more about Bobby the boy struggling over new circumstances than it is about baseball.
In the modern world, the message is a powerful one, namely that even if your personal circumstances are difficult, you need to concentrate on the important things in your life. This story is a bit different in that there is no grand moment at the end where Bobby’s life is made whole again, his father makes a major and unexpected announcement. The baseball action is very routine and predictable.
Therefore, the story revolves more about Bobby’s relationship with his parents and the people in their lives. He lives with his mother and she has her female friends with their shared interests. Bobby discovers that his father is seeing a widowed woman that is the mother of a player on another team. These circumstances make this a book more about Bobby the boy struggling over new circumstances than it is about baseball.
In the modern world, the message is a powerful one, namely that even if your personal circumstances are difficult, you need to concentrate on the important things in your life. This story is a bit different in that there is no grand moment at the end where Bobby’s life is made whole again, his father makes a major and unexpected announcement. The baseball action is very routine and predictable.
June 6, 2024
Bobby turns into a street legend, The Fox. The problem is that no one can steal against Walt Wilson…Will the fox be able to take Walt in the showdown?
Only one way to find out!
Only one way to find out!
May 16, 2015
The subject of divorce is one we're pretty used to in books written for kids today - but this book was written in the 70's which makes it that much more interesting. I remembered the conflict, the shame involved with being 'different' and that whole new idea that some kids didn't have both parents at home. Which makes the anguish that our main character feels that much more touching. This is a difficult time for any child - and still is - which is what makes this book speak equally well to kids of today.
That aspect of the book bumped it up to a 3 star rating.
The baseball games are what made things slow down, spending a lot of time on the inning by inning play which probably makes the more baseball minded enjoy the book better but actually felt like they covered a fairly meagre plot that could have been so much more. I would have liked to understood the emotions of his parents a little better. And the whole moving thing alluded to in the description didn't even come up until the last five pages - that is NOT what the story is about at all. The ending felt a bit rushed with the whole "it's ok" when I hadn't even been given time to adjust to the news of his father going away. I was still recovering from the fact that he'd been dating long enough to build a relationship with his girlfriend's son, which then fell apart awfully fast (making me feel kind of sorry for that kid who had just had another father figure walk out on him). Ick.
So yeah, could have been better. But not a bad book overall.
That aspect of the book bumped it up to a 3 star rating.
The baseball games are what made things slow down, spending a lot of time on the inning by inning play which probably makes the more baseball minded enjoy the book better but actually felt like they covered a fairly meagre plot that could have been so much more. I would have liked to understood the emotions of his parents a little better. And the whole moving thing alluded to in the description didn't even come up until the last five pages - that is NOT what the story is about at all. The ending felt a bit rushed with the whole "it's ok" when I hadn't even been given time to adjust to the news of his father going away. I was still recovering from the fact that he'd been dating long enough to build a relationship with his girlfriend's son, which then fell apart awfully fast (making me feel kind of sorry for that kid who had just had another father figure walk out on him). Ick.
So yeah, could have been better. But not a bad book overall.
October 2, 2012
The Fox Steals Home was a really good book I had enjoyed reading it. In this book Bobby is having a hard time with his parents and their divorce. He is having trouble with concentrating on baseball so he is missing alot of easy routine plays. At the end of the book to add to all of the things that are going wrong his dad tells him that he is going to go on some kind of big ship. His dad will be gone for a long time so he is really sad about that. At the very end of the book he realizes that it won't be so bad. He realizes that his dad is eventually going to come back and who know maybe his parents will get back together.
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January 16, 2015The book, the fox steals home is about a 12 year old boy who is going through a tough time in his life. His parents are getting a divorce and his mom got custody of him. He wished he could see his dad more often. He tried to get his mind off of it by playing baseball. He tried but had a hard time doing it. All he could think about was his worries. He never wanted this to happen. He worked harder and harder to try to be the best at stealing bases. He got very good and was able to steal home by the end. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves baseball and may also have family issues. I wasn't very fond of it because I'm not one of those types of people.
August 29, 2013
The quality of the writing was awful and some parts of the story too artificial. But I can't bring myself to give this a one-star rating because of the truly exciting finale, in which a young base-stealer nicknamed "the Fox" plays his last game of the season, hoping to impress his father. My children's eyes lit up as we read it aloud. So, if you like Matt Christopher books in the first place, you'll LOVE this one.
December 21, 2011
This kid goes to steal home, and the kid gets safe. It's about this kid who wants to be on this team; he turned down the team. He wants to be on the team. I don't recommend this book because it talks about the same things and it gets boring after 20 pages in to the book. This book would be a good short book to read.
January 19, 2014
"If you like baseball, read it" according to my 5th grade cumulative reading log. I started it on 9/18 (1997 I believe) and am not sure what rating out of 6 I gave it (it looks like a mixture between 1, 4 & 7). I vaguely remember enjoying this book so 4/6 is probably accurate.
April 15, 2007
Wow, my copy definitely did not have this snazzy a cover. I think it was from both the library and the 70s. Seeing how garish it is now kind of makes me sad.
May 10, 2009
Best book for a young boy who loves baseball. I still dream of stealing home as the Fox did and Benny 'the Jet' Rodriguez.
April 26, 2010
this book is good and what i like about it is that jason the kid in the book lurens from his misakes and win the game for them in the last chasnce
July 12, 2010
this was one of my favorite books about baseball because I always loved stealing bases and that is the main theme of the book
August 11, 2012
See my review here: http://andrewjkahn.com/2012/08/09/mat...
September 14, 2015
The Fox Steals Home
Matt Christopher
I enjoyed this book it was about a kids who parents are getting divorce and his dad that has coached him every year may be moving away.
Matt Christopher
I enjoyed this book it was about a kids who parents are getting divorce and his dad that has coached him every year may be moving away.
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January 22, 2009JAR4-Chr
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews