Too Hot to Handle (Matt Christopher Sports Classics)

By Matt Christopher

Book Overview

Baseball runs in David Kroft's family. His father was a good player in his day, his uncles play on professional teams, and David's older brother, Don, is the best short-stop in the history of Penwood High School.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316140740
• ISBN13: 9780316140744
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.3" x 0.5" x 5.0"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

ms janzen book report for nick van

The first book I read this trimester is "Too Hot to Handle". It is a sports book by Matt Christopher. In this book baseball runs in David Kroft's family. The father of David played very well. His uncle played professionally. David's older brother, Don, is the best short-stop inn the history of Penwood High School. David really likes baseball but he kind of sucks at it compared to his family. In the middle of this book Don hurts his leg and can't play anymore. So now David has to live up to the family name and play better. During his games he gets better but still makes to many errors. As he progressing he get s better and better so the last 50 pages there team is in the playoffs game 7 of the little league World Series. Bottom of the 9th bases loaded 2 outs you get the drift. So will David make the last catch? Will he bobble it? What will happen to David after the playoffs? What I liked in this book was the dialogue or the self thought about David. This book was very exciting to read because every chapter had a new game a new problem in baseball for David to try and fix. I could not feel like I was in the book because a lot of the things that happen aren't very realistic. Also so stuff is just too amazing or spectacular for anybody to actually be able to do it. The only why you might be able to feel like you were in the book is if you were some jock superstar. The main conflict was very interesting because it had a lot of dialogue and "sports action". The characters in the story were realistic just some of the stuff they do in the story were unrealistic or unimaginable to happen in real life. For instance little leaguers throwing pitches at 95 miles an hour. the books ending was very interesting it was the last game in the playoffs and David is the one who either makes or breaks the game for his team. The author's voice is in the third person of the baseball field as an announcer almost. The vocabulary in this book was very basic and not used in any different way except for some slang. The author speaks as if he's an announcer at the games except when they are doing dialogue of course but this is very different approach to sports books. The author's ability to use dialogue was amazing because the characters said stuff that they actually would if they were in that situation. The author could have described stuff a little bit better. The tone was pretty stupid because it was from the point of view of the announcer and I didn't really like it. The author could have done the describing job better he is bad at it. I give this book 8 out of 10 because he has good dialogue and the characters are realistic but there just wasn't enough description in the book to always keep me interested. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes sports. I think this book is very good and you should read it. The only thing is only read this book if you like sports otherwise you'll be clueless and won't like it and you may ruin the book for someone else.

Too Hot to Handle

How would you feel if your dream was destroyed? In Too Hot to Handle, David takes his brother's place in baseball because he was injured. David had to take his place in the baseball season. Since David is the worst baseball player in his family, he tries to achieve his goal by being excellent on his baseball team. The story is gripping because the story's problem is realistic and you can put yourself in the middle of it. Also, the challenges are realistic and he fixes them. David takes his brother's place after he gets injured. He tries his best to be better. David reminds me of me because he is the worst on his family at baseball and I am the worst at soccer in my family. Also David and I are the youngest in our family. The theme is the harder you try the more you get out of something. David's life changed right after his brother's injury. He had to focus all of his energy on baseball. Matt Christopher is the writer young readers turn to when they are looking for a great sports book. Matt Christopher wrote many books like Miracle at the Plate and No Arm at Left Field. His first award was Boys Clubs of America Junior Book Award. I recommend this novel to 3rd -7th graders that are on this really like sports because this can put you in the middle of the story. Read this book to see what happens next in Too Hot to Handle.