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On the Court with... Yao Ming
Yao Ming is one of the biggest stars in basketball today-literally. At seven feet, six-inches, Yao's impressive performance for the NBA's Houston Rockets earned him the Rookie of the Year Award in 2002-2003, and put him on the covers of Sports Illustrated and other magazines, as well as in television commercials for brands such as Visa and Gatorade. His gentle nature off the court doesn't impede his domination on the court, and his sensational seasons have brought a new surge of interest to the NBA. Watch for him in the Summer '04 Olympics!
- GenresBiography
112 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2004
3 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
467 books142 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 11, 2014
This book caught my attention because again, I love both basketball and YaoMing since he is considered the tallest and best player in basketball history.One thing that impressed me in this book is how YaoMing came back again and again to try to play in America even if China said no again and again. China finally said yes to YaoMing going to America.YaoMing and his coach were like good friends. Everyone on YaoMing put their trust on him to score the hoop and win the game.Everytime he fell down, he just got up back and stronger then ever.YaoMing is first born and practices basketball in china then sent to America for basketball camp and then playing on the team there successfully.A author's craft would be sensory description because it describes the Basketball Game and YaoMing a lot.For example in the book it said,"The crowd erupted."(Matt 85) when YaoMing successfully guarded O'Neal.Overall this is a great book that shows lots of basketball history and the intensity in the games described through the book was good.
November 19, 2020
I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars. Mainly because the book kind of goes over the same topics over and over again. But don't get me wrong, this was actually an interesting book to read! I also picked 3 stars because I am a basketball player myself, and I can relate a lot to this book. I think someone else should read this book because this book teaches you lessons. At first, Yao Ming did not make it to the NBA, the NBA was one of Yao's dreams. So Yao practiced and practiced until he was good enough for the NBA. This teaches you to never give up and to encourage your self along the way. Yao's teammates on his former team thought Yao was never going to make it to the NBA. But that changed due to Yao's hard work everyday.
January 19, 2012
Genre: Non Fiction
Quarter: 2
Quarter: 2
April 18, 2012
The author, Glenn Stout, does a good job of covering Yao's life up to the ind of his first year in the NBA.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews