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Comeback of the Home Run Kid
Sylvester Coddmyer III, star of "The Kid Who Only Hit Homers" and "Return of the Home Run Kid" is about to face his biggest challenge yet. He sprains his ankle and wonders how he will hit homers--or even singles--when every swing means pain.
128 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2006
16 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
467 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 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 6, 2023
The third book in the saga of Sylvester Coddmyer the Third is a smaller, more introspective tale. Syl suffers an ankle injury and recovers by learning to become a switch hitter. He also has to deal with the repercussions of his dirty play last season (detailed in the second book, Return of the Home Run Kid). Syl is aided in both of these by "Charlie Comet," a friendly ghost(?) of Mickey Mantle. I've loved this series of books (and Matt Christopher in general) since I was a young lad. The 3 star rating I gave with my head. With my heart? This thing is 5 stars, baby.
January 15, 2017
I love it
It's amazing and I think you should get it I read the first one and it talks about the same charter and has the same charter in it
It's amazing and I think you should get it I read the first one and it talks about the same charter and has the same charter in it
June 19, 2019
This is the best baseball book I've ever read. This book is pretty short and only took me 5 days to read. I recommend reading this book if you like baseball.
June 10, 2022
My boys are obsessed with baseball and this series is so much fun! There's so much to learn about baseball from the books, about life, and about baseball history.
July 18, 2014
Genre: Magical Realism (Fiction)
Fountas and Pinnell Guided Reading Level: Approximately Level N
Summary: Matt Christopher's third book in the "Kid Who Hit Only Homers" series follows the main character, Sylvester, just before the start of his next season when he sprains his ankle while practicing with his best buddy. He is determined to start the season and play well even though taking a swing is excruciating. He meets a mysterious man named Charlie Comet who helps him become a switch hitter, since swinging as a lefty doesn't put pressure on his ankle. Will he be able to play and help his new team win? And who is this mysterious man?
Why I Liked/Disliked the Book: Although I love baseball, I sometimes find Matt Christopher books to be overly technical in describing each play in detail. However, I liked how he solved Sylvester's baseball problem by having him learn to switch hit. The book also includes a good amount of friend drama as well as mystery about Charlie Comet to keep you interested even if you don't love baseball.
What This Book Made Me Think About: What it takes to be a switch hitter. I felt like Matt Christopher described Sylvester's struggle to become a switch hitter pretty realistically. It really does take a lot of practice and Sylvester did not become a switch hitter overnight.
Fountas and Pinnell Guided Reading Level: Approximately Level N
Summary: Matt Christopher's third book in the "Kid Who Hit Only Homers" series follows the main character, Sylvester, just before the start of his next season when he sprains his ankle while practicing with his best buddy. He is determined to start the season and play well even though taking a swing is excruciating. He meets a mysterious man named Charlie Comet who helps him become a switch hitter, since swinging as a lefty doesn't put pressure on his ankle. Will he be able to play and help his new team win? And who is this mysterious man?
Why I Liked/Disliked the Book: Although I love baseball, I sometimes find Matt Christopher books to be overly technical in describing each play in detail. However, I liked how he solved Sylvester's baseball problem by having him learn to switch hit. The book also includes a good amount of friend drama as well as mystery about Charlie Comet to keep you interested even if you don't love baseball.
What This Book Made Me Think About: What it takes to be a switch hitter. I felt like Matt Christopher described Sylvester's struggle to become a switch hitter pretty realistically. It really does take a lot of practice and Sylvester did not become a switch hitter overnight.
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March 14, 2016Comeback of the home run kid by Matt Christopher was the best book of the three books that I have read so far. This book is very interesting and entertaining. I could not put the book down, I had to keep reading. I have read 3 of the 4 books in this series of books, and this one was the best one.
It starts out as Syl brakes his ankle. Later, he thinks he can go back to baseball. But while he was running and he hurt it again. He meets a mysterious guy that he has never seen before. He offers to teach Syl to bat lefty because of his ankle. It just gets better from there.
I would just recommend this book to anybody who likes baseball.
It starts out as Syl brakes his ankle. Later, he thinks he can go back to baseball. But while he was running and he hurt it again. He meets a mysterious guy that he has never seen before. He offers to teach Syl to bat lefty because of his ankle. It just gets better from there.
I would just recommend this book to anybody who likes baseball.
May 1, 2015
This book was okay. It was about sports and I like sports but it's really fake. Matt Christopher is a very good writer. He writes lots of sports book. This book was kinda cool how famous baseball players come back to life and help the kid with his baseball skills. I don't really like baseball but it was still a good book. I would recommend it to people who like sports.
June 13, 2014
I liked it. He hurt his ankle and at the very front of the book and then he met a person who helped him switch so he could bat lefty so it wouldn't hurt his ankle as much as when he bat righty. And it was good for the team.
June 26, 2012
Isaac loved this whole series and read them over and over.
November 22, 2012
This was a good book with an interesting story line, good quick read.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews