What do you think?
Rate this book
The Dog That Stole Football Plays
Mike's football team is really put to the test when Harry, his telepathic dog, has to stay home. Can the team win without Harry's supernatural advice?
48 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
10 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
469 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 9, 2018
My first grader and I read this together for our September parent child book club meeting at the library. He was pretty excited because it seemed like it was going to be silly and had a dog in it - and technically it was both of those things. It was overly simple and I don’t think it made the moral point of the book quite clear enough, while at the same time alluding to relatively complex football lineups and plays that didn’t particularly make sense to either my son or I. Anyhow, we read it together in about 25 minutes or less and are ready for book club tomorrow.
February 9, 2019
When Mike walks by the pet store, he is shocked to be addressed by the Airedale in the window. Harry is a telepathic dog, able to communicate mentally with other dogs and also Mike. Also, he can do handstands, which is what convinces Mike's dad to pay $20 for him. Harry is bored hanging around the house alone while Mike goes to football practice, so Mike agrees to bring him along to a game. That's when he realizes just how helpful Harry's special gift can be. Featherweight, predictable, and mildly cute.
January 20, 2025
Mike adopts a dog only because of what he can get from him - the dog talks and helps him out. Later, his conscience starts to trouble him, especially as his dog eavesdrops on the competition and then relays that information to Mike so they can win football games.
I liked the aspect of the story were Mike decides to do the right thing. Overall this is an okay book which kids who like football can enjoy. Not really my thing.
I liked the aspect of the story were Mike decides to do the right thing. Overall this is an okay book which kids who like football can enjoy. Not really my thing.
June 7, 2021
It is illegal to steal plays. The boy questions but never says stealing is wrong even though he does learn the team can play well without cheating. Football does not end in a tie. Dogs should not eat bones off the ground—could splinter and choke. Dogs should not be fed whole hamburgers with vegetables on them—too much people food and some items are toxic to dogs. All around very useless book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 22, 2017
The cover and title illustrations are incredibly misleading, throughout the book skin colour is distinguished by lips vs no lips, which just seems odd, and it is a simplified version of the 'believe in yourself' moral of most sports-based movies.
December 17, 2018
Mike has an Airedale named Harry that is psychic, and can communicate with Mike through his thoughts. Harry has been telling Mike the plays of the other teams allowing them to win, but when Harry eats a bad bone, and gets sick, can Mike and his team beat a stronger, bigger, and faster team fair and square?
August 25, 2011
Very cute story.
November 13, 2013
I read this book when I was younger and I still think it's a cute book. The format, language and pictures are appropriate for a student between 1st and 3rd grade, depending on their reading ability.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews