Fighting Tackle

by Matt Christopher

After a growth spurt slows him down, Terry McFee finds himself assigned a new position on the football team, yearns for the return of his old swiftness, and copes with his envy over the speed of his little brother, a Down's syndrome child training as a Special Olympics sprinter.

147 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Matt 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.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading "Fighting Tackle." I chose this book because my cousin told me I would really like the book and all the action in it. Fighting Tackle is a story about two brothers whose names are Terry and Nicky. Terry is into football and Nicky is really competitive in track. Terry's football coach gives Terry a new position and Terry is really upset because he wants his old position back. Terry wakes up every morning goes running and to try get better at his new position. Terry and Nicky go camping with their father and a major accident happens, they accidently turn the car on while their father is sleeping. Nicky calls his fathers name and his father wakes up tries to stop the car by trying to hold onto the door but the door swings and hits there father in the face. The car goes rolling into the lake. Terry and Nicky have to work together in order to save their father. Terry stays with his father and Nicky runs to get help. It gets darker and Terry is trying not to get scared he reminds him self that he is a football player and he shouldn't get scared. Then Terry sees lights and help is on the way. The ambulance saves his father. They go home safe and Terry and Nicky tell their father how they worked with each other. Terry and Nicky earn presents from their father. My favorite quote from the story was when Terry said he was not only a tackle but also a fighting tackle the best there was. This is my favorite quote in the story because Terry doesn't give up on trying to be the best football player he tells him self that he is the best fighting tackle. I think Matt Christopher's writing style is really interesting because all his books teach you a life lesson. I would recommend this book to anyone whose interested in sports. This book also teaches readers how to respect their brothers. I really enjoyed this book.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is a realy good book for people that play football. If you play football you could relate to this book. If you like football this is a book for you. Its called. Terry has to edjust to to the defenseve potion.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is good for anyone who is very into football or just any other sports.

[Brena Joynt · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Fighting Tackle" is a great story for younger readers who are having issues with a brother or on
a sports team that should see that everything gets better with a little work. This would be a good book to have in my classroom to help students who are having problems with sports.
Terry is a on the high school football team and has just been assigned a new position, which he is not happy about. He is determined to get his original position back. He becomes very frustrated when he is not doing good at his defensive spot and begins to take it out on his brother, who had down syndrome. His brother comes to all his games and practices and can be heard cheering on his brother. On an adventure with their dad, an attempt to get the brothers together again, their dad passes out. The brothers work together to go get help. In the end they become friends again and Terry begins to accept his spot on the football team.