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Mountain Bike Mania
Riding a bike is such a rush for Will Matthews. Soon after he joins a mountain biking club, he's hurtling down hills, pedaling over mud-churned trails and leaping over rocks and gullies. But he may be moving so fast that he's forgotten the friend he left behind.
160 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1998
9 people are currently reading
46 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.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 30, 2016
I loved this book even though it was short, it reminds me of my childhood and my love and passion for mountain biking, aswell as doing it with my friends. I can't tell you how many times I have read this book! I would recommend this to someone who really loves mountain biking and did it throughout their childhood
July 18, 2022
Mountain Bike Mania Matt Christopher
There were days, I hate to admit, when my children chose to read something I found somehow subpar. To my horror, I found myself sniffing, “You’re reading that?” Now my kids are grown, and I’m atoning for my snobbery. This month that meant reading "Mountain Bike Mania" by Matt Christopher, “The #1 Sports Writer for Kids.” He wrote more than 100 middle-grade novels, mostly about sports, and his name is now a trademark carried on by his family. I’d never heard of him, but the dudes on the Overdue podcast covered a book one of them had loved as a kid called "Skateboard Tough." (They debate whether Brett is a skateboard tough or rides his skateboard in a tough manner.) It was a surprisingly deep discussion about a kid with a potentially haunted skateboard.
Much to my dismay, my library did not have that book, but it did have the mountain bike one, plus a kid villain with a great name, Ace Diamond. The book has cliffhangers no one writes anymore, like this one at the end of chapter 4: “This was it. He had found the answer to all of his after-school problems! Nothing could ruin his happiness now!”
And isn’t this why we read in the first place? To find out what ruins our hero’s happiness? That’s worth stepping out of our comfort zone.
There were days, I hate to admit, when my children chose to read something I found somehow subpar. To my horror, I found myself sniffing, “You’re reading that?” Now my kids are grown, and I’m atoning for my snobbery. This month that meant reading "Mountain Bike Mania" by Matt Christopher, “The #1 Sports Writer for Kids.” He wrote more than 100 middle-grade novels, mostly about sports, and his name is now a trademark carried on by his family. I’d never heard of him, but the dudes on the Overdue podcast covered a book one of them had loved as a kid called "Skateboard Tough." (They debate whether Brett is a skateboard tough or rides his skateboard in a tough manner.) It was a surprisingly deep discussion about a kid with a potentially haunted skateboard.
Much to my dismay, my library did not have that book, but it did have the mountain bike one, plus a kid villain with a great name, Ace Diamond. The book has cliffhangers no one writes anymore, like this one at the end of chapter 4: “This was it. He had found the answer to all of his after-school problems! Nothing could ruin his happiness now!”
And isn’t this why we read in the first place? To find out what ruins our hero’s happiness? That’s worth stepping out of our comfort zone.
June 16, 2017
This was your typical formula fiction book. It was however, not a horrible read, it was just a bit boring and predictable. In the story Will Mathews goes home everyday after school, and is bored out of his mind. His parents try to get him involved in a variety of activities such as sports and different clubs at school, but Will just never seemed to like any of them. It wasn't until he joined a mountain bike team that he was finally having fun. But, it may have costed him a friend. The book has something in it that all young students can relate to, in one form or another. In the classroom, I would have students find comparisons of either text to text, text to self, or text to world.
Read
April 4, 2020Will is in sixth grade and his parents want him to find an after school activity to keep him busy while they are still at work. Will discovers the mountain biking club, and soon he’s off pedaling, making new friends, and having a good time. Only trouble is, Will’s good friend Danny doesn’t like the sport and thinks all mountain bikers abuse the land and are dangerous to hikers. The story wraps itself up neatly.
October 6, 2008
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS BOOK WAS THAT THE CHARECTER'S NAME IS WILL MATHEWS, THE BOOK IS MAINLY ABOUT MONTAIN BIKING, WILL CAN'T FIND A SPORT AFTER SCHOOL AND HIS PARENTS' ARE WORRIED THAT WILL STAYS AFTER SCHOOL DOING NOTHING SO WILL TRYS OUT FOR SPORTS.WILL FAILS EVERY SPORT SO HE TRYS OUT FOR MONTAIN BIKING AND HE MAKES IT TO THE CLUB HE MEET'S THE THE LEADER OF THE CLUB SHES A 8th GRADER AND TELLS WILL TO GO BUY A BIKE.SO WILL GOS TO A SHOP AND BUYS A BIKE, ALL FRIDAYS HE STAYS AFTER SCHOOL AND HE GOS BIKING HE HAS A FREIND NAMED JAKE BUT IN THE END HE DESIDES WHO? TO STAYS WITH AND HE STAYS WITH HIS FREIND AND THATS THE END. CARLOS VASQUEZ
November 15, 2013
This book "Mountain bike mania" written by Matt Christopher is a pretty good book. I started to read it and I didn't really understand why it was titled "Mountain bike mania." After a little I started to understand the book, it was about a boy named Will that is not to good at any sport. He had to go to the library after school everyday and he also tried out for baseball but didn't make the team, he was very sad. After that Will found out about the mountain bike club in his school! The boy asked his parents about it and they said yes for it. They went and bought him a new bike and gear. He really loved it and told his friend Danny to join. Danny was not to sure about joining. He did anyway and loved it! Will and Danny really enjoyed it, then they had a little mountain bike fundraiser and gained a lot of money! Everyone enjoyed mountain biking and had a lot of fun. Will though he was bad at everything, but it turned out he really liked mountain biking.
December 14, 2016
This is a well written and touching book that can apply to almost anyone assuming most of us know how to ride a bike. Even if you are like will biking could be for you, you dont even always need trails to ride you mountain bike. Just get a friend or 2 and hit the trails. And when you have spare time why not read this book? Since i tend to not like books i would say this is a good waste of time.
March 25, 2011
I was trying to find books about sports to read to kids at school so I tried this one. There are some themes that I think are more appropriate for older kids (5-6 grade) like divorce, latch key kids, rebellion and kid's feelings that come with it. Will becomes a latch key kids when his Mom goes back to work and his parents try to find something for him to do after school so he doesn't just watch TV. He discovers a mountain biking club to enjoy as well as the popular kids that are in it. He rejects his "nerdy" friend and starts to feel sorry for himself for being a latchkey kid. Will begins to redeem himself as he discovers the most important things in his life.
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October 20, 2008what i learned from this book was that the main caracter's name is will mathouse and he jions a biking club after school so he dosen't stay at his house alone at the end he disides who? to stay with his friend or his biking club. carlos.vasquez
August 29, 2014
A cute, formulaic piece of schlock that will surely satisfy the reading tooth of any mountain biking enthusiast. While the lessons are drilled in with a sledge-hammer, the result is somewhat satisfying, much like a McD's milk shake on a summer's day.
December 9, 2009
I liked it when Will encouraged Danny to join the bike club.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews