What do you think?
Rate this book
Challenge at Second Base
Stan Martin's chances of playing second base seem next to zero at the start of the season. His rival for the position, Gary Newman, looks tough to beat. Stan loves baseball-maybe even more than his brother, Phil, who played pro ball until quitting suddenly the year before-but after experiencing a few setbacks, Stan is tempted to quit too. Then Stan receives a mysterious note telling him to stick it out-and soon Stan finds himself face-to-face with the challenge at second base.
111 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
16 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
437 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 21, 2015
Challenge at second base is a great book about a kid, who doesn't know if he is good enough to be the second baseman on his baseball team. The coach said that you can't show up late to the first practice if you wanted a shirt. Stan showed up late and no one was there because he completely forgot about practice because he was out on the boat with his older brother. Stan Martin then thinks he shouldn't play because the coach won't allow it! But one day when he comes home there is a package with his shirt and a letter saying "don't quit! You have ability! Stick to it!". Stan went on to play very well and obtain a starting role on his baseball team.
This book was told through the first person point of view. Stan is a 13 year old boy who plays for his town's traveling baseball team. His attitude varies a lot during the this book because in the beginning he is down and doesn't believe in himself. By the end he is very happy and has never believed in himself more.
This book is for girls and boys (10+) that have a good interest in baseball and like a story about kids who never give up.
I rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars because it is a kids book. This book has a very good lesson telling the reader to never give up and take a chance if it is given to you.
This book was told through the first person point of view. Stan is a 13 year old boy who plays for his town's traveling baseball team. His attitude varies a lot during the this book because in the beginning he is down and doesn't believe in himself. By the end he is very happy and has never believed in himself more.
This book is for girls and boys (10+) that have a good interest in baseball and like a story about kids who never give up.
I rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars because it is a kids book. This book has a very good lesson telling the reader to never give up and take a chance if it is given to you.
March 31, 2014
My favorite parts of the books were the baseball games. They played four games, and they won three. His coach said "If you aren't here in time, unless you have an excuse, you will not get your shirt and you can not be on the team." He was late, but he still got his shirt because they thought he'd be really good on the team. I wish there had been more than four games in the book, I wish there had been about ten games.
November 5, 2014
Spoiler Alert!!!!!!!
This book was great, just like all of Matt Christopher's books. I just wish it was longer, but he somehow packs a huge amount of detail into a 110 page book! Stan is in a competition through the season with Gary Newman for who will play second base. Just as you think that Gary is going to become a full time second basemen, Stan's brother, Phil besides to play pro ball again! Encouraged that his brother came back to baseball, Stan starts to get better at a rapid pace! Soon Stan's coach puts Gary at short and Stan at second. Sadly, Gary is livid that he lost his spot and starts throwing intentionally hard or wild balls on double plays! The team is actually losing games because Gary is mad that he lost his position, that is until their coach steps in and tells Gary to be happy that he got moved to short instead of mad about it. Soon the team gets better and they don't finish last in their league. I recommend this book for people who have a little time on their hands and love sports, especially baseball!
This book was great, just like all of Matt Christopher's books. I just wish it was longer, but he somehow packs a huge amount of detail into a 110 page book! Stan is in a competition through the season with Gary Newman for who will play second base. Just as you think that Gary is going to become a full time second basemen, Stan's brother, Phil besides to play pro ball again! Encouraged that his brother came back to baseball, Stan starts to get better at a rapid pace! Soon Stan's coach puts Gary at short and Stan at second. Sadly, Gary is livid that he lost his spot and starts throwing intentionally hard or wild balls on double plays! The team is actually losing games because Gary is mad that he lost his position, that is until their coach steps in and tells Gary to be happy that he got moved to short instead of mad about it. Soon the team gets better and they don't finish last in their league. I recommend this book for people who have a little time on their hands and love sports, especially baseball!
May 5, 2016
Challenge At Second Base by Matt Christopher was a good but short book. I feel like I read the whole book in 20 minutes. The whole book took place over about 30 days. I believe that If he used up more space and wrote a little more about each day or added more days. It would have been a better book.
It starts out with a boy named Stan, he loves two things. Model air planes, and baseball. When he gets older he wants to be an engineer so he can work of the reals cars and planes not just the model ones. He does not want to be a baseball player because he thinks he isn't every good. His competition at second base is better then him so he does not want to play. Eventually he finds out, he just had to get better at some stuff and all of the sudden he was good.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Matt Christopher.
It starts out with a boy named Stan, he loves two things. Model air planes, and baseball. When he gets older he wants to be an engineer so he can work of the reals cars and planes not just the model ones. He does not want to be a baseball player because he thinks he isn't every good. His competition at second base is better then him so he does not want to play. Eventually he finds out, he just had to get better at some stuff and all of the sudden he was good.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Matt Christopher.
Currently reading
June 7, 2012I am about half way through this book at this point. So far I have liked this book and think it is very interesting. I have similarities and differences between me and Stan. We both persevere in an attempt toachieve a goal. There are also some differences between us. First of all, Stan seemed to give up on becoming the starting second baseman, but I would never give on something I wanted so much. After he receives a letter from a unanimous writer, he gets the drive to keep going and attempt to achieve his goal. I am interested to find out what happens next in the book. I hope to see him succeed and achieve his goals with hard wrk and good effort. I am very excited to keep on reading the novel " Challenge at Second Base.
February 28, 2009
Well this book was a okay book. Its about Staan's Martin the main character chances of playing second base on the team is close to zero at the start of the season.
Read
January 8, 2013good
July 11, 2014
it was good
August 20, 2015
I really enjoy reading Matt Christopher's Sports Classics. They are encouraging, great books.
September 22, 2016
This book is a great sports book with some close calls. I like this book and I want to read more books by Matt Christopher.
Read
May 10, 2019The book I am reading is called challenge at second base by Matt Christopher. The lexile level is 600. This book is about a guy who is in a boat and has to get to a baseball game and the other guy in the boat and they see other boat and it is tipped over and they went over to help him and they were late for his game.
Stan wants to play second base but gary newman plays second base and he doesn't like that because stan thinks he is better at second base thn gary. Stan’s chances of playing second base is next to zero. Stan wants to quit baseball but he gets a random letter in the mail that tells stan to stick with it. And he soon after that note he becomes second base.
I highly recommend this book it's easy and it's really good. On how he goes from playing baseball to wanting to quit because he can't play second base to playing and becoming second base. It just goes to show if you want something go out and get it and if it doesn't come easy just keep on pushing through and you will get it. The book was not confusing at all it’s a lower lexile level but it’s good I think. I really like the ending on how he gets second base after about to quite the team over something stupid. My favorite part was when he said that he wanted to quite. and then the next day he gets a random letter in the mail saying not to quite.
Stan wants to play second base but gary newman plays second base and he doesn't like that because stan thinks he is better at second base thn gary. Stan’s chances of playing second base is next to zero. Stan wants to quit baseball but he gets a random letter in the mail that tells stan to stick with it. And he soon after that note he becomes second base.
I highly recommend this book it's easy and it's really good. On how he goes from playing baseball to wanting to quit because he can't play second base to playing and becoming second base. It just goes to show if you want something go out and get it and if it doesn't come easy just keep on pushing through and you will get it. The book was not confusing at all it’s a lower lexile level but it’s good I think. I really like the ending on how he gets second base after about to quite the team over something stupid. My favorite part was when he said that he wanted to quite. and then the next day he gets a random letter in the mail saying not to quite.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews