Return of the Home Run Kid

by Matt Christopher

Tired of warming the bench, Sylvester Coddmyer III accepts the offer of Cheeko, an ex-ballplayer, to help him improve his game, but Sylvester soon begins to feel that there is something fishy about Cheeko.

Genres: Sports, Fiction, Baseball, Childrens, Juvenile, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult

149 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1992

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

[Caleb Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Return of the Home Run kid" was the sequel of "The Kid Who Only Hits Homers" which was also a very exciting book. In "Return of the Home Run Kid" by Matt Christopher, Sylvester Coddmyer III, Syl, desperately needs advice to get him out of his slump, but Mr. Baruth, who coached him last season, is nowhere to be found. Then, a creepy and mysterious ex-baseballplayer named Cheeko shows up. Soon after he gets some hitting coaching from Cheeko, Syl is finally back on track hitting homers like he used to before he got in the slump.Even though Cheekos advice did help him with his hitting, Syl knows that his new, aggressive coach Cheeko gives him so bad advice and teaches him attitude that he knows is not acceptable on the field. Sure enough, it's not long before his teammates like Greg and Duke start to see how Syl is changing with Syl's lack of team spirit and unsportsmanlike conduct and even some of the ways coach Stan talks to him.

Through out the book, it gives good examples of the game being played in play by play text and throughout it all it teaches good examples of what respect for the game looks like, such as when Syl eventually has to make his own decision on to listen to Cheeko or not and to respect the game and his team or not. But even though it does give you good lessons, it also teaches you how bad effort and attitude can affect your playing.

Since I also play baseball, I can definitely relate to a lot of this book, one of those parts being when Syl's teammates realize that Syl is not having as good as attitude and is not having sportsman like conduct like he normally does because I have also had a teammate that had a bad attitude as soon as he did something wrong and it always affected his whole game from then on.

I personally liked this book quite a bit especially how I was able to see whether or not Syl took the bad advice and I guess you if you want to figure it out then you'll just have to read the book yourself

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quick read for an adult. It is the story of Syl who met Mr. Baruth last year who helped him with his baseball. He's met somebody new this year who is also trying to help him through a slump but who tends to be a little bit negative towards things. I didn't read the first book so I don't know if the people he meets are real or ghosts of former players. You're left with impressions but nothing definitive.

[Christina (Confessions of a Book Addict) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such a fun series for baseball lovers - a bit of a mystery involved makes it even more enjoyable! The descriptions of baseball games are fantastic and will entice the most reluctant of readers to keep reading just one more page.

[Sawyer Trainor · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Fav book

[Gavin Essex · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was very good

[John F · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is realistic fiction. I really liked this book especily the beginning. I like how he didnt give up when he was doing bad and when people would put him down. he still kept trying his hardest. I also liked how the book would give you the play by play of the game so you could under stand what was going on. The main charector Sylvester had an amazing baseball season last year and he even got an award for his home run streak. But this year he is having a really bad start. Then a guy named cheoko started to help him with batting and fielding and he got back into the swing of things. I also like the end of this book. The big game and it was all up to Sylvester with a guy on second and sylvester up to bat sylvester hit one right to the fielders glove. He was sad but his friend snooky started chanting Coddmyer whitch is sylvesters last name. Then the whole crowd started to chant with him. but the game still went on. IN the end its a great book all around.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book I read was called “The Return of the Home Run Kid”, it is about a boy named Sylvester. He was the king of homeruns the year before on his elite team. His coach the year before named Mr. Baruth helped him so much but then later moved away, Sylvester was never the same. This year not so much, he is struggling to just get in the lineup, he plays in the outfield and is struggling to in that. Just when he is about to give up, a guy walks up to him and they start talking, later the guy that is named Cheeko is his new coach for the season, helping him catch fly balls and finally helping him hit and hit it hard for home runs. Read the book to see what to the baseball kid Sylvester in this book “The Return of the Home Run Kid”.

[Will M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good, but not what I expected. It would have been a great interesting book, if the author used more details and good names of teams. The book got really interesting when Sylvester and his friend looked through the baseball cards and found out the true identity of Sylvester coach's is.Sylvester lead the league in homers last season, but could not follow it up the next season. He needed help and thats what he got, a personal coach to help him.The year before when he could hit he had a coach, an interesting coach just like the one Sylvester got the following year. Overall, it was a good book, but could of been better.

[Wyatt Price]

I thought that it was a pretty good book. The main character , Sylvester, starts out in the book daydreaming on the bench of a dugout. You could call him a bench warmer. He has messy hair, which is dirty blonde. His day dream was about last season when he would hit home runs and that was it. This year he can't even hit the ball a foot.
Last season he met a mysterious guy who gave him some pointers to become a better ball player. This season the mysterious guy is not there to help. He thought

[Jack T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I liked it because it is about baseball, which is my favorite sport. It is realistic fiction and sports. This is the sequel to "The Kid Who Only Hit Homers", by Matt Christopher. Sylvester Coddmeyer starts out daydreaming on the bench in the dugout. He is in a very big hitting and fielding slump. He meets a man named Cheeko and he helps Sylvester out. Read the book to find out the rest!! I recommend this book to anybody that loves baseball!!

[Spencer G · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the book was very good. The book paints a very vivid picture in your mind. Right away when I read this book I thought that I didn’t like it but it turned out a very well written book. This book make me think twice about the game of baseball. I would recamend this book to anyone looking for a realistic fiction about baseball.

[Jared Cervantez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sequel to the "Kid Who Only Hit Homers" and this one was just as good as the last one. This one is like the last ine. I like how he was in a slump and then when he met a new mentor. Then all of a sudden he was back. Just like the last one another famosu ballplayer may have been mentioned. He was famous for the wrong reason though. (Black Sox Scandal)

[Owen Kowatch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sylvester sat the bench the whole game and rarely played, so when Cheeko gave him some pointers and said he would coach him he said yes. All of a sudden it is like Syl turns a switch on, he can do it all, field, hit and run. Then his friend shows him a baseball card and it looks exactly like Cheeko. This is a great sports book and I recommend it.

[Pj Neubauer]

This is a really good book. Sylvester always hits home runs when he is at bat and then the next season comes he can't hit anything. But he found his rythm again and in the end he was a normal hitter not just hitting home runs.

[Nathaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was ok. I would rate it more a 4 and 1/2. During one game, he hit one home run, struck out once and then hit one that it was almost a home run, but the person jumped and caught it before it was a homerun. Then in the same game, he made a bunch of diving catches every time he caught it.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. In this book sylvester is a kid who plays baseball for the redbirds. Sylvester is in a slump after Mr.Baruth left town suddenly and stopped practicing with him. I would recommend this to someone who likes books about sports.

[Enrique Carrion · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kind of enjoyed this book because I like baseball. But the book wasn't really that detailed. It also wasn't like intense. So I would only recommend this book to you if you like baseball and the story.

[Adonis Cruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story line were confusing.

[Cws]

JAR4-Chr

[Danny Routh · Rating 4 out of 5]

AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book for baseball lovers. If you don't like baseball this book will bore you to death.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm just the wrong audience; my baseball-mad sons really enjoyed it, especially the pitch-by-pitch narratives of the Red Birds' games.

[Jonathan R]

Great baseball book

[Darning]

I LIKE THIS STORY OF THIS BOOK

[Mas5thgrade2013 · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was pretty good

[Mitch Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tween baseball player getting hitting tips from the ghosts of Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. Good, clean fun. Enjoyed reading with my boys.

[Andrea]

i haven't finshed it yet but it alsome

[Nathan Potts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book because the kid in the book really wanted to hit a homerun but he kept striking out. I like it because he never gave up. I would recommend this book to people who like baseball.