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Center Court Sting
CENTER COURT STING Trash talking leads to trouble on the basketball court.... Forward Daren McCall is quick with an insult, quick to take offense, and quick to blame anyone but himself for his troubles. So when center Lou Bettman accuses him first of bad-mouthing him, then of vandalism, Daren turns the tables and insists that Lou is out to get him. The team splits into two camps, those who believe in Daren's innocence and those who take Lou's side. The fight heats up when Daren falls victim to an outrageous act. But did Lou retaliate, as Daren suspects, or is someone else trying to teach Daren a lesson?
160 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1998
18 people are currently reading
54 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 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 10, 2017
Personal Response
I enjoyed this book very much because I like basketball. There was lots of mystery in this book too. The thing I didn't like about the book was that it was very confusing to understand, I got confused with the names of the characters because Darren would have everybody mad at him then say that Lou was riding bike home with him when Darren didn't say sorry or patch things up with him. It was just really confusing for me.
Plot summary
First Darren and Lou were riding bike home after a good day at practice. Then the next day they had a game so there won were game by 5 points then on the bus back to school Darren listed all of Lou's mistakes, then Lou starts fighting with Darren then the next day Lou´s basketball shoes were painted all red and he yelled at Darren for doing it. Then the basketball coach hears about and them fighting about something Darren did bad in practice and a game. Then their coach tells them both if you do this again you are kick off the team. Then two games went by until Darren's lucky towel went missing. So Darren blamed Lou and a day later then was a towel covered in red paint and then there was a picture on Lou's locker also in red paint, after a good game against there rivals that was in red paint. Then Darren looked at the water boy and told Lou´s to look and then the found who was doing it to them all basketball season so they went back to best friends and the water boy got in trouble but still stayed waterboy because Darren didn't want to take his favorite thing to do away form him.
Recommendation
I recommend this book to kids that are in middle school and younger. feel like it was a very easy book to read and that it would be very easy for a third grader too. But for me it was confusing because there were so many characters that fight and it was very confusing to tell who was who when they all sound the same. But if you need some RC point or a goodreads done this book would be very quick and easy book to do.
I enjoyed this book very much because I like basketball. There was lots of mystery in this book too. The thing I didn't like about the book was that it was very confusing to understand, I got confused with the names of the characters because Darren would have everybody mad at him then say that Lou was riding bike home with him when Darren didn't say sorry or patch things up with him. It was just really confusing for me.
Plot summary
First Darren and Lou were riding bike home after a good day at practice. Then the next day they had a game so there won were game by 5 points then on the bus back to school Darren listed all of Lou's mistakes, then Lou starts fighting with Darren then the next day Lou´s basketball shoes were painted all red and he yelled at Darren for doing it. Then the basketball coach hears about and them fighting about something Darren did bad in practice and a game. Then their coach tells them both if you do this again you are kick off the team. Then two games went by until Darren's lucky towel went missing. So Darren blamed Lou and a day later then was a towel covered in red paint and then there was a picture on Lou's locker also in red paint, after a good game against there rivals that was in red paint. Then Darren looked at the water boy and told Lou´s to look and then the found who was doing it to them all basketball season so they went back to best friends and the water boy got in trouble but still stayed waterboy because Darren didn't want to take his favorite thing to do away form him.
Recommendation
I recommend this book to kids that are in middle school and younger. feel like it was a very easy book to read and that it would be very easy for a third grader too. But for me it was confusing because there were so many characters that fight and it was very confusing to tell who was who when they all sound the same. But if you need some RC point or a goodreads done this book would be very quick and easy book to do.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 2, 2019
My book is Center Court Sting, it is by Matt Christopher. The book is about the middle school basketball team The Rangers, they have the main character Darren McCall. He is a trash talker to his team. Constantly putting people down like Lou Bettman and Andy Higgins. His best friend Lynn Mayes and Coach Michaels are trying to get him to understand that the way he criticizes people who don't do stuff right instead of helping them. He gets in to arguments with Lou and it all comes to a head when Lou’s mom is sick in the hospital. Andy Higgins was doing stuff to them to make them argue like painting Lou’s shoes bright red. Lou thought it was Darren. The team was really good but not in their chemistry. The on court play made Darren a hometown hero. His neighbors son watched Darren play and he wanted Darren to coach him. He was 7 and Darren didn't give any positive encouragement so the kid cried and stopped talking to Darren then he realized he needed to change. He changed to give constructive criticism and positive encouragement to the kid and his team and he earned his starting spot back to beat the best team in their region.
The book is from Darren's prospective and tries to convince you to think he did nothing wrong making the books ending interesting. The book makes things relatable when people call Darren out saying things like “If you were seven and your idol talked to you like that how would you feel.”. The way the book convinces you that what Darren did was nice and fine makes it interesting.
I would recommend this book to young basketball players or fans. It shows how much chemistry can affect a team's performance, even if one person is out of line. It gives reinforcement to the thought that people can change. It gives a very good moral disguised as a sports book. The way the game plays out when they are playing seams very quick and sometimes tense when it is a close score.
The book is from Darren's prospective and tries to convince you to think he did nothing wrong making the books ending interesting. The book makes things relatable when people call Darren out saying things like “If you were seven and your idol talked to you like that how would you feel.”. The way the book convinces you that what Darren did was nice and fine makes it interesting.
I would recommend this book to young basketball players or fans. It shows how much chemistry can affect a team's performance, even if one person is out of line. It gives reinforcement to the thought that people can change. It gives a very good moral disguised as a sports book. The way the game plays out when they are playing seams very quick and sometimes tense when it is a close score.
January 4, 2013
I think this book is amazing.I picked it because it is about basketball and it is about a guy called Daren who has a big mouth,he will insult anyone who did something to him even his own best friend.Daren,Lynn,Shawn,Lou are players on the Rangers basketball team.Alone the line,Daren stay on Lou's case and insults him,one day someone took Daren lucky towel out of his locker,Daren thought it was Lou,but it wasn't Lou,it was their assistant Andy,who picks up their towels and wash their jerseys.No one ever thanked Andy for all he does for them,Andy also took Lou's sneakers and painted it all red,Lou blamed it on Daren.They went on for a while then Daren's father talked to him about it was his fault that people hate him so he should apologize.He apologized to everyone and at last,Daren got all his friends back and was not insulting anyone.
September 27, 2010
I read Center Court Sting. It is a good book about a kid that is not very popular at his school, he made the basketball team and he has a temper. When his team is in need of him to make a free throw, he misses. His whole team gets really mad at him. Just his luck, later in the season he gets another chance to make the game winning free throw later in the season! He makes it and he is the hero of his team. He fastly becomes very popular at his school!
I do not know any quotes from the book because the book is not available to me at this time. But I know that it is a good book by Matt Christopher.
I do not know any quotes from the book because the book is not available to me at this time. But I know that it is a good book by Matt Christopher.
March 2, 2015
In the book Center Court Sting, Daren is having friendship issues with everyone on the basketball team. The Rangers have a tough schedule ahead of them and they need teamwork to win the games. Can Daren stay on the team? Daren’s neighbor Judy comes and asks if Daren can teach her little brother Gary some basketball. While Daren is trying to teach Gary he starts to be mean to Gary. Its a great comeback story and I recommend reading it. Andy said “Way to go Dar” (pg. 10) after Daren got his technical foul. Can the Rangers go to the playoffs? If you like sports books this is a book for you. I recommend reading Matt Christopher books. He is a great author.
December 1, 2010
I think the book is great. I give it five stars. I think it is cool because it has a lot of details and he went through a lot of things.
Brandon
Brandon
October 20, 2011
I gave this book 2 stars because it talk about 2 kids fighting on the team. Lou helps a neighbor named Gary help because hes goin out for basketball. at the begining he misses a shot and the team gets mad at him and at the end he makes a key shot and helps his team win and hes the hero. I would of liked this book better if there wasnt as much fighting and more about basketball there was some basketball but not much.
January 13, 2015
This book Center Court Sting is a very exiting good sports book. I believe that if your are a kids that enjoys sports and is very competitive you would love this book. I my self would give this book a 9 out of ten because I can highly relate to this because i'm competitive and love sports especially basketball. So I recommend reading center court sting and also Matt Christopher he is very good childs sports author. So go read center Court Sting. It will blow you away.
November 1, 2011
I gave this book 4 stars because it had a lot of drama and you always wanted to know what was going to happen.This book had a lot of blaime and it was very suspencful and that is why i gave it 4 stars.
May 13, 2016
The book was about a kid on a basketball team that's all ways trash talking. I liked the book because its about basketball and I like basketball. I would recommend this book to people who like basketball.
Currently reading
June 9, 2009This Book Was About How He Was Center To Blame To The Offence.When lou Bettrem Accuses Him Abut First To Come And To Blame.Daren's Turns On Him And Try To Do What They always Like To Do.
April 25, 2013
This was a great book! I like all Matt Christopher books because they are about sports and I love sports!
October 22, 2013
i would definetly read this book or any other book by Matt Christopher. I liked him since second grade so any grade level that or above should read this book or any of his books for sure.
February 22, 2015
It Was a great book! Just like the others .So I give this a five star
April 11, 2017
This book is about a basketball team and their relationships. Daren McCall struggles with communicating well with his team and gets into arguments and standoffs with his teammates. Throughout the story, it shows how the teammates interact together on and off the basketball court. It also shows how they interact with other teams, as well. Daren McCall’s team is the Rangers. The story is centered on events that either the teammates do to each other or someone else does something to get their attention. I will not be saying who because it would be a spoiler.
I would use this book in my classroom to teach my students how thoughtful communication can make a difference within any community. Our community can be within the classroom, outside of it, on a team or when facing another team on the court. Overall, this book would be helpful in sending a message to my students that we all matter and treating each other with respect, resolving our problems and talking them through before something major happens is important.
I would use this book in my classroom to teach my students how thoughtful communication can make a difference within any community. Our community can be within the classroom, outside of it, on a team or when facing another team on the court. Overall, this book would be helpful in sending a message to my students that we all matter and treating each other with respect, resolving our problems and talking them through before something major happens is important.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews