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Snowboard Maverick
Can a skateboard pro conquer the slopes? Dennis O'Malley is the best skateboarder in town. Unfortunately, he has to shelve his board for more than half the year, when the streets are covered with snow. Then a new sport emerges on the scene, one that Dennis's friends think he'd be a natural at: snowboarding. Since snowboarding and skateboarding use such similar moves and techniques, making the jump from the streets to the slopes should be a breeze for Dennis. Only Dennis knows it won't be....
- GenresRealistic Fiction
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
10 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
467 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.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 2, 2012
The story "SNOWBOARD MAVERICK" is a story about a boy named Dennis O'Malley who is really good at skateboarding but it is snowboarding season and he wants to give it a try but he had an accident when he was sking. Dennis O'Malley is scared of the slopes but gets use to them and conquers his fear. The reason why I chose the novel "SNOWBOARD MAVERICK" was because I snowboard and I wanted to read a story about snowboarding and how Dennis O'malley learns how to snowboard. "Dennis was trying to focus, visualizing the stunts he had practiced over and over again." This quote is my favorite qoute in the novel "SNOWBOARD MAVERICK" because Dennis is determined to conquer those stunts so his focusing and he is really confident that he can do it without having any trouble. Matt Christopher's writing style is is really interesting becuase in the novel "SNOWBOARD MAVERICK" Matt Christopher thinks that if people practice anything will be easy for them. Practice makes perfect. I would reccomend this book to people who like snowboarding and want to learn about a boy who learns how to snowboard and becomes a champ.
April 23, 2013
I really liked this book. This book is about Dennis O’Malley he is the best skateboarder in town. It’s also because I like to snow board but I don’t like to skateboard.
My favorite part in the book is when Dennis was up on top of a big hill and took the advanced section and he was going really fast down, the reason I like that is because I think that would be really fun and plus I like to go fast on things.
The part I didn’t like in the book is when Dennis was going down this big hill and part way down it there was fallen skier and Dennis was going really fast so he couldn’t stop. So then Dennis had no choice but to hit him then Dennis went flying and he broke his board and broke a few bones. Then when the bones held he didn’t have a board no more so he had to save up for one on his own because his parents wouldn’t it for him.
So if you like skateboarding or snowboarding this is the book for you. It is very energetic.
My favorite part in the book is when Dennis was up on top of a big hill and took the advanced section and he was going really fast down, the reason I like that is because I think that would be really fun and plus I like to go fast on things.
The part I didn’t like in the book is when Dennis was going down this big hill and part way down it there was fallen skier and Dennis was going really fast so he couldn’t stop. So then Dennis had no choice but to hit him then Dennis went flying and he broke his board and broke a few bones. Then when the bones held he didn’t have a board no more so he had to save up for one on his own because his parents wouldn’t it for him.
So if you like skateboarding or snowboarding this is the book for you. It is very energetic.
November 22, 2011
I gave this book a four star rating because this book had a lot of exitement in it. I liked this book because I like snowbording and outdoors. The book kind of jumps around during the story, but otherwise it was a vary good book. I liked also liked it because it used alot of dicriptive words. This book is a must read.
December 21, 2011
I gave the book 4 stars because it was vary good and I liked it a lot. What happened in it was Dennis is a star skateboarder and hates skiing because he got hurt doing it. One day in the winter he skateboarded in town and his friend showed him how to snowboard and then he ended up loving it. Two kids that were vary good challenged him at a big dangerous hill. He sucseded and won at the end.
September 27, 2016
Snowboard Maverick by Matt Christopher. The theme is "never give up". The book has told me that if you try your best and never give up you will accomplish a lot of things in life. This novel is a fiction book. The setting is in a small town called Moorsville. The author makes me feel like I was there because he uses a lot of descriptive language.
June 24, 2012
A very fun book. I thought it was a greaat book.
May 28, 2015
i just started reading it and its crazy because he asked for a snowboard but his parents said no because they done shopping. then his friends said that he would end up getting one.
August 20, 2015
This is a great boo about an amazing skater that tries snowboarding and finds his new passion. I loved this book and lots of other boarders will too.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews