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Peach Street Mudders
All-Star Fever: A Peach Street Mudders Story
Bus Mercer, shortstop for the Peach Steet Mudders, wants desperately to be picked for the county all-star team, but he breaks his parents' rules for riding his new bike, and feelings of guilt affect his game.
Kindle Edition
Published December 19, 2009
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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.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 15, 2025
Was a fan of Christopher’s books for a time in elementary school. I like his pacing. For the audience, he keeps the action moving, and a kid who’s a sports fan won’t be disappointed with the game action.
Christopher has a real knack for naming his characters too. Bus Mercer. Turtleneck Jones. T.V. Adams. 3rd grade Dave would want to be on that team.
Actually he’d probably want to be a Green Dragon, but still.
Christopher has a real knack for naming his characters too. Bus Mercer. Turtleneck Jones. T.V. Adams. 3rd grade Dave would want to be on that team.
Actually he’d probably want to be a Green Dragon, but still.
October 6, 2009
I really didn't like this book. I picked it up because it had all kinds of baseball woven into the narrative, but I realized, in reading it to my son, that it's a thinly-veiled, overly melodramatic morality play. It's not very well-written or engaging, either.
The main character is Bus Mercer and his performance leading up to the all-star game is sub par and he worries he'll never get chosen for the team. The book reveals a series of misfortunes and bad decision-making and it seems like his life starts to unravel. Eventually, he gets chosen as a substitute for the all-star team because he's an all-around good guy. The kid is just full of worry and I didn't like to read this to my son because he doesn't have this kind of panic and drama in his life, and I didn't want the book to show him how to go there. Fortunately, my son just focused on the specific baseball plays in the book and little else. It (thankfully) did not make a lasting impression.
The main character is Bus Mercer and his performance leading up to the all-star game is sub par and he worries he'll never get chosen for the team. The book reveals a series of misfortunes and bad decision-making and it seems like his life starts to unravel. Eventually, he gets chosen as a substitute for the all-star team because he's an all-around good guy. The kid is just full of worry and I didn't like to read this to my son because he doesn't have this kind of panic and drama in his life, and I didn't want the book to show him how to go there. Fortunately, my son just focused on the specific baseball plays in the book and little else. It (thankfully) did not make a lasting impression.
August 20, 2011
This is one of Christopher's easier offerings. Baseball is such a large part of this book that young readers simply have to have a strong knowledge of the game in order to make sense of it. The main story is about Bus wanting to make the county All-Star team, but the rest of the book is about being a good person. Specifically about being the kind of person your parents can trust. In that respect I sort of felt that while Bus made the same decisions and mistakes as many kids he was given an awful lot of credit (maybe more than he deserved)for what good decisions he made.
April 29, 2015
I really enjoyed this novel. I thought it was an easy read with a good plot. There are many great lessons to go a long with this book including: do not lie to your parents and practice is necessary to succeed in anything. I think that boys would enjoy this book because it is about sports. It can also be relatable to some students, so they may like it even more. It is a great book with great lessons.
January 26, 2014
In this sports story, Bus Mercer desperately wants to join the all-star baseball team. However, his guilt over breaking his parents' rules harms his game and the chance at the team.
A good chapter book for transitional readers interested in sports.
A good chapter book for transitional readers interested in sports.
January 1, 2013
Beginning chapter reader with a good moral. Especially for boys who loves baseball.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews