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Top Wing
When his father is accused of causing a fire through faulty wiring, Dana tries to get to the bottom of the allegations. But when he discovers the shocking truth, he must decide whether to keep quiet or ruin a reputation by going public.
164 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1994
8 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
438 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
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 16, 2019
This book is a good book about soccer. it shows that to win you need to work as a team and forget about the problems outside the field. there is a good twist at the end of Benton being the one who's burned down his own house. This book demonstrates that you should always tell the truth, it also presents that kids shouldn't do things they aren't supposed to like smoking or doing drugs.
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March 27, 2019Name: Joe Miller
Book title: Top Wing
Personal Response:
The book Top Wingis an interesting book because it starts off with basically an argument. I also liked the book because it was based on sports. The book was fast paced.
Plot:
The book Top Wing is an interesting book because Dana’s soccer is playing a game with another team and the Anchors ( Dana’s Team) had won the game and then they went to go celebrate at a restaurant. The next evening Dana’s parents went out and so did Bent’s parents, and then there was a fire at Bents house and then Dana’s dad went into the house to save Bent and his sister. The next day Bent and his family had blamed Dana’s dad for the bad electricity wiring. That had affected the next game for the Anchors because when it was just Dana and Bent dribbling the ball to the goal and then Dana said to pass it to him because Bent was about to head into a group of the other team, but Bent didn’t pass the ball. He just ignored Dana and then Bent tried to kick the ball into the goal but he missed because of the group of people. The next game the same thing happened and then Dana and Bent got into an argument on the field and Steve came up and said, “ Stop it now or I will go over to coach and have you guys benched”. That got them to stop arguing, so then they continued to play the game, but Bent kept of ignoring Dana and that got him really mad. Once they had lost the game the coach had yelled at the team for not passing it and they weren’t using teamwork. Then the coach started to talk to Dana and Bent alone. “ Whatever is going on between you two needs to stop because it is affecting how we play. You guys can deal with it after and off the field”. Then they both started to run off the field and then Dana went home and told his parents that Bent is Blaming Dana’s dad that their house got in flames, but Dana’s mom didn’t like what she had heard so she tried to call Bent’s mom but she didn’t answer. The next day at practice Dana was talking to Steve about how he is the new Top Wing.
Recommendations:
I recommend this book to kids 7+. It’s really interesting and will get kids motivated to read the book.
Book title: Top Wing
Personal Response:
The book Top Wingis an interesting book because it starts off with basically an argument. I also liked the book because it was based on sports. The book was fast paced.
Plot:
The book Top Wing is an interesting book because Dana’s soccer is playing a game with another team and the Anchors ( Dana’s Team) had won the game and then they went to go celebrate at a restaurant. The next evening Dana’s parents went out and so did Bent’s parents, and then there was a fire at Bents house and then Dana’s dad went into the house to save Bent and his sister. The next day Bent and his family had blamed Dana’s dad for the bad electricity wiring. That had affected the next game for the Anchors because when it was just Dana and Bent dribbling the ball to the goal and then Dana said to pass it to him because Bent was about to head into a group of the other team, but Bent didn’t pass the ball. He just ignored Dana and then Bent tried to kick the ball into the goal but he missed because of the group of people. The next game the same thing happened and then Dana and Bent got into an argument on the field and Steve came up and said, “ Stop it now or I will go over to coach and have you guys benched”. That got them to stop arguing, so then they continued to play the game, but Bent kept of ignoring Dana and that got him really mad. Once they had lost the game the coach had yelled at the team for not passing it and they weren’t using teamwork. Then the coach started to talk to Dana and Bent alone. “ Whatever is going on between you two needs to stop because it is affecting how we play. You guys can deal with it after and off the field”. Then they both started to run off the field and then Dana went home and told his parents that Bent is Blaming Dana’s dad that their house got in flames, but Dana’s mom didn’t like what she had heard so she tried to call Bent’s mom but she didn’t answer. The next day at practice Dana was talking to Steve about how he is the new Top Wing.
Recommendations:
I recommend this book to kids 7+. It’s really interesting and will get kids motivated to read the book.
February 13, 2015
I read this book in 2nd grade but yet it is still my FAVORITE BOOK EVER you should read this its a sports mystery (my favorite books are sports mysterys)
November 19, 2015
Dana loves soccer and is on the local soccer team with his friends. His friends parents are going to a late night party and while they are gone Dana's friends house starts on fire! Dana's father rushes into the house and saves Dana's friend and his sister who were trapped in the burning house. Dana's father is severely injured though and has to go to the hospital for surgery on his lungs because of to much smoke inhalation. Meanwhile Dana is still on his soccer team but his friend is acting weird. When Dana asks him what is wrong he turns and runs away. Later on Dana figures out that his friend thinks that his dad started the fire in his house. Dana's dad gets better but his friend is still acting weird. Will they ever be friends again?
I like this book because it has my second favorite sport which is soccer. I also like this book because it has mystery in it. I like mystery because it leaves so much suspense and it always gets the readers energetic and questioning.
I like this book because it has my second favorite sport which is soccer. I also like this book because it has mystery in it. I like mystery because it leaves so much suspense and it always gets the readers energetic and questioning.
May 1, 2014
Top Wing was about a boy named Dana who played soccer with his neighbor Benton. One day Benton caused the fire because he was dared to smoke he threw the cigarette on the ground and the fire ignited. Danas dad save them both but struggled to save Benton's sister and himself. Dana's dad was hospitalized because he got smoke in his lungs he missed all of Dana's soccer games except for the last one. Benton blamed Dana's dad for causing the fire but he was lying the whole time. He finally admitted to his parents that he caused the fire by smoking because a group of kids had dared him to. In the end Benton was grounded but became good friends with Dana."Just Right Book"
January 17, 2010
Top Wing was about kids who like soccer on a team. They were a really good team and got along well until there was a fire that involved 2 people in the team. There were investigations and fights.
I cannot connect to this or make a connection because i hated this book. It's hard for me to make a connection because i just didn't like it.
I gave this book 1 star because it was TRASH. I thought it sucked. It often put me to sleep. In class i would try to read it but almost end up sleeping. When i read it in the train i fell asleep and missed my stop.
I cannot connect to this or make a connection because i hated this book. It's hard for me to make a connection because i just didn't like it.
I gave this book 1 star because it was TRASH. I thought it sucked. It often put me to sleep. In class i would try to read it but almost end up sleeping. When i read it in the train i fell asleep and missed my stop.
June 27, 2011
This book is about a young and talented soccer player that goes throught a few problems. I can relate since i used to play soccer too and that's partly why i purchased a copy. Dana, Steve, and Benton come out stronger than ever. It thought me a valuable lesson. Remember always find out who are your real friends.
May 2, 2013
It was a good book with a simple setup. Two main characters with a problem that tore them apart, and it ended with a good resolution and a "happy ever after" finish. It was a little too simple in setup and got kind of boring.
October 22, 2015
I think this is a great book and anybody can like it because it's not just about soccer it also talks about a crazy tragedy, about a fire, and the house goes down in flames. Also they are trying to figure out what caused the fire. I would recommend this book to people who like soccer.
January 13, 2010
This book is about a kid that was on a soccer team that sucked preety bad. And the kid wasen't that good either. i don't recommen this book to any body because is not that good.
March 18, 2014
The basic story was really good but the soccer games were written in way too much detail. Much of this could have been left out and dedicated to the real story.
April 30, 2015
An exciting story...both on and off the field.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews