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No Arm in Left Field
A poor throwing arm and prejudice from one white boy keep a black junior high student from completely enjoying his position on the baseball team.
131 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 1974
3 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
435 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 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 16, 2015
In the story No Arm in Left Field by Matt Christopher this boy Terry moves to a new town in which he is the only black kid. Terry thought his life was going to be like the one in his old town. Terry wanted to play on a baseball team, but in this new town, he gets picked on because he's black, and also Terry knows that he has a weak arm, so he doesn't want another reason for kids to pick on him. I think this is a great book because of the characters. I mean they feel as real as me and you. you know with the problems they face and how they face them. I also think this book is great because you can really learn something from it and take away things from this book. To put it in other words it will change the way you look at things at life and how you treat people.
Let me show you why I feel that Terry is just an ordinary boy like me and you. In the beginning of the story, Terry is having a baseball catch with his new and only friend Mick. Mick is on the town baseball team, and he asks Terry if he wanted to come practice with the team but right before Terry can get out a YES! Tony the shortstop from the baseball team yells at Mick "we got practice lets go" than Mick is like come meet my new friend, Tony calls Mick over and says to him "He's a negro stay away from people like that" sadly Terry over hears, but than he hears Mick backing him up. After Mick and Tony leave to go to baseball practice Terry goes inside and cries his eyes out saying "I want to go back to the old town where we are not the only black family". Then Terry's parents come over to comfort Terry. Terry tells them what happened and they tell him, "Not everyone is like Tony, and if you want to prove Tony wrong join the baseball team and be better than him" so that's exactly what Terry decides to do, he join the baseball team. So from that point Terry plays on a Baseball team with his new friend Mick and his new enemy Tony. But there is another problem, and that is that Terry has a weak arm, and he just agreed to play on a baseball team. How in a million years can you play baseball if you can't throw the ball! But knowing Terry he will some how manage to find a way! I don't know about you, but for me that feels like it's real life, and the way he handles his problem would be the way that I would do it!
Now let me take you through a journey on how this book can change the way you look at things in life. Like what I said before, how he gets called names that make him feel uncomfortable. That should show you that just one word can have a huge impact on how someone's feelings even if you're just joking around. But obviously in this case, they weren't joking around. This book can show you how much a simple sorry can do for a person and you should treat them the way you want to be treated. Like in the end before Terry goes into a big moment, which I don't want to spoil for you, Tony says he is sorry for all the things he did and said to Terry. That's why I think Terry comes up big, that sorry was a boost of confidence to Terry. That's how and why you should treat people like the way you would like to be treated.
That's just some of the examples why I think this is a great book, and there's many different examples you would like this book. This book shows great examples of sports and life lessons that's why I think everybody 16 or under would like this book.
Let me show you why I feel that Terry is just an ordinary boy like me and you. In the beginning of the story, Terry is having a baseball catch with his new and only friend Mick. Mick is on the town baseball team, and he asks Terry if he wanted to come practice with the team but right before Terry can get out a YES! Tony the shortstop from the baseball team yells at Mick "we got practice lets go" than Mick is like come meet my new friend, Tony calls Mick over and says to him "He's a negro stay away from people like that" sadly Terry over hears, but than he hears Mick backing him up. After Mick and Tony leave to go to baseball practice Terry goes inside and cries his eyes out saying "I want to go back to the old town where we are not the only black family". Then Terry's parents come over to comfort Terry. Terry tells them what happened and they tell him, "Not everyone is like Tony, and if you want to prove Tony wrong join the baseball team and be better than him" so that's exactly what Terry decides to do, he join the baseball team. So from that point Terry plays on a Baseball team with his new friend Mick and his new enemy Tony. But there is another problem, and that is that Terry has a weak arm, and he just agreed to play on a baseball team. How in a million years can you play baseball if you can't throw the ball! But knowing Terry he will some how manage to find a way! I don't know about you, but for me that feels like it's real life, and the way he handles his problem would be the way that I would do it!
Now let me take you through a journey on how this book can change the way you look at things in life. Like what I said before, how he gets called names that make him feel uncomfortable. That should show you that just one word can have a huge impact on how someone's feelings even if you're just joking around. But obviously in this case, they weren't joking around. This book can show you how much a simple sorry can do for a person and you should treat them the way you want to be treated. Like in the end before Terry goes into a big moment, which I don't want to spoil for you, Tony says he is sorry for all the things he did and said to Terry. That's why I think Terry comes up big, that sorry was a boost of confidence to Terry. That's how and why you should treat people like the way you would like to be treated.
That's just some of the examples why I think this is a great book, and there's many different examples you would like this book. This book shows great examples of sports and life lessons that's why I think everybody 16 or under would like this book.
February 28, 2019
Loved Matt Christopher books when I was a kid
January 14, 2020
Terry Delaney is the new kid in town and doesn't really mind it. He finds a friend named Mick Jordan and thinks things won't be so bad until he meets Tony Casterline the teams shortstop. Tony Casterline points out the fact that Terry has a weak throwing arm. This book is called No Arm in Left Field and Matt Christopher wrote it.
This story is a third person point of view. The author doesn't really do anything to affect the characters because he's not in the story but he does affect the story a little bit. He gives Terry a poor throwing arm and makes Tony Casterline mean.
Overall, I didn't really like this book I would give it a 6/10 rating. I didn't like it because it just wasn't my book I guess. That's just me though. This book wasn't confusing at all. It was also easy to read. It wasn't predictable like my other book. My favorite part of the book is when Terry and Tony end up coming friends which is also toward the end of the book so I liked the end of the book. I really had no connections in this book.
This story is a third person point of view. The author doesn't really do anything to affect the characters because he's not in the story but he does affect the story a little bit. He gives Terry a poor throwing arm and makes Tony Casterline mean.
Overall, I didn't really like this book I would give it a 6/10 rating. I didn't like it because it just wasn't my book I guess. That's just me though. This book wasn't confusing at all. It was also easy to read. It wasn't predictable like my other book. My favorite part of the book is when Terry and Tony end up coming friends which is also toward the end of the book so I liked the end of the book. I really had no connections in this book.
August 8, 2017
First book I ever read cover to cover.
June 3, 2020
I liked it!!
September 30, 2022
A poor throwing arm and prejudice from one white boy keep a black junior high student from completely enjoying his position on the baseball team.
November 25, 2013
No Arm in Left Field by Matt Christopher is the story of a young African American boy named Terry who moves to a town of mostly white people. He befriends his neighbor, who invites him to try out for the local baseball team. Things are going well until he runs into a bit of a bully, the team’s shortstop, who blames Terry’s below-average throwing arm for the team’s poor performance. The two teammates work out their conflict and become supportive teammates by the end of the story.
This third-grade level book will be good for boys in my class who like sports, and will be on hand on the shelf for the silent reading time. The story has a good morale of embracing diversity, developing team work, and managing conflict.
This third-grade level book will be good for boys in my class who like sports, and will be on hand on the shelf for the silent reading time. The story has a good morale of embracing diversity, developing team work, and managing conflict.
October 24, 2014
No Arm in Left Field by Matt Christopher informs you on the problems of Terry Delaney. Terry is a black boy In the town of Forest Lake. He is the new kid. He has one friend and his friend tries to bring him in. However he is still singled out and made fun of by other white kids. He joins the baseball team and is the best Cather on the team. However he cannot throw. Read to find out the rest!
I really liked this book. I give it 4/5 stars. Even though I'm not a fan of baseball it was still very interesting! It was definitely a make you turn the page book.
I recommend this book to sports lovers and baseball people. It also is a good lesson on why not to be racist.
I really liked this book. I give it 4/5 stars. Even though I'm not a fan of baseball it was still very interesting! It was definitely a make you turn the page book.
I recommend this book to sports lovers and baseball people. It also is a good lesson on why not to be racist.
April 8, 2016
No arm in left field is by Matt Christopher. The main characters in this book are Tony, mick, and Terry. The setting is on a baseball field and terrys house. The genra is fiction. This book is about terry. He is a African American and like the name of the book does not have a good arm. He has to deal with Tony who is getting on him because of his race. Can Terry deal with it and make it through the off season? I rated this book 5 stars because it showed really well what Terry has to go through.
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September 27, 2018good book
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews