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Face-Off
FACE-OFF A jealous teammate can lead to danger on the ice.... When it comes to skating, Scott Harrison can't be beat. Still, he can't believe it when he's asked to play for the Golden Bears hockey team. But soon his excitement turns to doubt, then fear, when a resentful teammate ruins his confidence. Scott must confront his nemesis or give up his dream of playing hockey forever.
131 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
6 people are currently reading
47 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 3, 2020
Scott is a great skater, maybe the best in town, but can he play hockey? He is befriended by a couple of hockey players who see his impressive skating on the local pond and they convince him to join the town's hockey team.
Scott has a few hang ups, he is puck-shy, and one of his teammates is jealous of his skating skills.
Will Scott overcome these obstacles to secure a spot on the team and become a great hockey player?!
Of course he will!
The overall story is pretty good, especially for young readers. The reading is action packed with lots of game action. My only problem is some of the terminology. It feels like maybe Matt Christopher doesn't know hockey at all. Many times the positions and plays were referred to in Basketball sayings like 'dribbling the puck', he calls a defenseman a guard...stuff like that. But, since there are very few kid's hockey novels this book seems to live on.
I found our copy at a yard sale or a thrift store (can't remember), there are lots of copies out there. But, if you don't want to look you can order one from Amazon now - https://amzn.to/2TMqabQ
Scott has a few hang ups, he is puck-shy, and one of his teammates is jealous of his skating skills.
Will Scott overcome these obstacles to secure a spot on the team and become a great hockey player?!
Of course he will!
The overall story is pretty good, especially for young readers. The reading is action packed with lots of game action. My only problem is some of the terminology. It feels like maybe Matt Christopher doesn't know hockey at all. Many times the positions and plays were referred to in Basketball sayings like 'dribbling the puck', he calls a defenseman a guard...stuff like that. But, since there are very few kid's hockey novels this book seems to live on.
I found our copy at a yard sale or a thrift store (can't remember), there are lots of copies out there. But, if you don't want to look you can order one from Amazon now - https://amzn.to/2TMqabQ
September 20, 2012
This is a great book for hockey fans. It's about a boy named Scott Harison who is a great ice skater. One day boys from his school ask him if he wants to join the local hockey team. He meets them at Cass Rink Arena. There he becomes a part of the Golden Bears. While they're practicing, Scott finds out that he is puck shy. And he finds out that one of the boys who recruited him is going to make fun of him for this. During the story Scott has to prove to Del that he can overcome his puck shyness and become a good hockey player too.
April 2, 2015
This book was pretty good. I picked it out because it was about hockey. I like hockey. This book just started out as pond hockey. Then it got to a team. Scott was pretty good but he was scared of the puck and I thought that was funny! It also kind of has a life lesson. This book is about hockey so I would recommend it to people who like hockey.
June 1, 2016
I like this book because i can relate a lot to it, when me and my friends skate at pioneers i'm always better then them because they don't play hockey and i do. but there are two differences, one, in Face Off they always argue during the game or at the game. Two, they all play hockey, and out of my friends not all of them play hockey.
July 12, 2010
typical plot...found it hard to keep reading
matt christopher reader's will be dissapointed
matt christopher reader's will be dissapointed
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December 16, 2013AR Quiz No. 5349 EN Fiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: MG - BL: 4.3 - AR Pts: 2.0
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP, VP
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: MG - BL: 4.3 - AR Pts: 2.0
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP, VP
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December 19, 2017Scott has always been good at ice skating. He’s not scared of the puck as he raced off a waterfall in an attempt to get the puck. But, when he gets invited to join a real team, he discovers he is scared of getting hit with the puck. He made some great plays and scored some great goals, but they won’t make up for all the times he let the puck go by him because he was scared of getting hit.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews