Twenty-one Mile Swim

by Matt Christopher

With remarks about his small stature and poor swimming skills ringing in his ears, the son of Hungarian immigrants begins to train for the 21-mile swim across a nearby lake.

146 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1979

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

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

                                                                                                                 
A complex multiplot novel beginning with a scene that will give you the chills and make you wonder why a father would encourage and teach his children that murder is okay and justified. Harlan is the father of several boys and each one has a job to do when a stranger happens along to where they are and is in the wrong place and needs to be eliminated. Next we meet Tsula and she is called to the sight where the body is found and learns his identity and things get tense from this point on. The author allows readers to see what happens to the victim and wonder why Harlan decided to take his life. Tsula is called to find his killer and the events that transpire are told in several voices: Harlan, Tsula and his son Junior’s voice. Harlan is cruel and demanding and will do anything to teach his sons how to be tough and the punishments are harsh if they do not listen or succeed in the tasks he assigns them.
Tsula goes to the sight where the body is found to learn that he is a biologist that has been missing for days but no one thought anything of it at first. As she learns more about Alex and what his goals were for being in this place we learn that he was researching and hunting Elk for a special program that he was heading up. But, when we learn more about Harlan and why he was at the spot where he was killed it comes back to the past with his father and leaves us wondering just what type of revenge this was for.
Harlan and his father Carl are two dangerous men who show no remorse in their actions and even torturing their own children comes easy to both as we hear their thoughts and learn what happens when someone tries to take something or someone that belongs to them. Someone kidnapped his mother and what the father did to seek revenge might have made its mark on Harlan and his own sons.
Interactions happen between Tsula, and Harlan and the end results are quite unexpected.  Learning more about Alex as a wildlife biologist and watching her asses the scene the area is Twenty-mile Creek, and she finds a revolver which is a twenty-two and examines the cylinder and the chambers. Next she secures the gun in the box and examines the victim to determine how the bullet enter and if it exited. Over the next hours we review how she releases the two men at the scene and now what is next?  We learn more about her mother followed by meeting someone in the area and learning more about the victim from Superintendent Hall who needed to see her but not where others would know. Asking if her investigation into a suicide it investigates motive . They different in their opinions but what will the outcome be?
Harlan deals with healthcare agencies hoping to get services for someone close to him only to learn that it is not always possible and then he deals with his son Joseph and the result is not what you would expect from a parent trying to teach a skill to a son.
Learning more about Alex, we find out about his relationship and that he was gay. Going through information with Bobby she learns why he went to the park on Halloween and that he was upset with his decision, but they were supposed to go to a party. The situation clarifies more when he knew nervous Bobby  was about his going to the park.
Things evolve further when the author introduces us to Junior and his relationship with his father that was anything but usual more fear and strained about always following his lead and what he demanded. Then her mother’s condition gets worse, and she must find a way to have her cared for when she is on this case but what will the result be if she denies the treatments?
Looking into the life of Carl Miles she learns about the last recorded sale of the 22 revolver that killed Alex in 1984 and the revolver belonged to him, and Miles had gone out of business and shipped all his records to the Bureaus of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives where they have remained in appear form since. Realizing that it was a miracle that the sale records were located but she learned that he passed thirty years ago in prison. She hopes the son can account for the more recent whereabouts of the un and this is where it gets dicey and dangerous meeting Harlan. Meeting him with no warrant was her first mistake and dealing with her facts that she tried to pry out of him made it worse.   Told in several days in the present in a timeline and then flashing back to the past in several places Tsula forges ahead but at times does not take the precautions needed to keep save. Bachelder is working with her, and they talk about Alex who was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head and he is assess what evidence and decide on the gun, the range and why Alex was there He was seen in the park hunting hogs, so he had residue on both of his hands. But that does not help. 
However, there were no witnesses and the kid who round him didn’t see anything and now she wants to follow up with Harlan again. She needs to go with someone and thinks that she dan handle it deep inside herself but what happens will let you know that Bachelder knows better but in the end you won’t believe what happens next. Harlan had returned from school to an empty house as we flash back to the past and learn his father’s creed concerning his mother and what he did to the man do took her and why. Failing is punishable and now things get dangerous as we learn about Otto and how he deals with his mistakes. the confrontation between Harlan, Abbott and Tsula does not go the way it was panned and in the end will anyone survive? Junior is next as we learn more about what his jobs and his role then the major confrontation between Harlan and Tsula which places her in harm, injured and both must struggle for survival, but you won’t believe what she must endure.
In the next five chapters Tsula must survive the ice storms, sleet, hail and the weather changes hoping that she does not freeze Death comes slowly for the man as she sees him fall but is this real and she sits alone in the dark shivering . Flashing back to Harlan we learn more about his father, what he does when someone crosses him and the result for his son Joseph and getting more knowledge about Carl his father who spent his life as a petty criminal stealing bikes for the time he would ride one. he was into drug distribution and more. It alternates between Tsula and Harlan until the final reveal at the end where a shocking revelation becomes known, and the tides are changed, and the roles are reversed as Tsula teaches a hardened criminal a lesson he will never forget.
When she is finally rescued what are her injuries and will she survive them? What about Harlan is he finally in jail. The ending will shock readers as we learn that one son is still out there and if this is the end of the road dealing with the Miles family.
Characters that are not likeable at all, remorseless and makes you wonder just how they turned out so cruel. Twenty-Mile leaves you much pause for thought as the author draws the drama to a close but is it over?
Fran Lewis: Just reviews