TBC: Body Check

Teebz's Book Club has a pile of books that need their spines cracked, but I'm slowly working through this pile. With summer being more than busy for me, it's hard to just grab a seat and plow through two hundred pages of a book. That being said, I do try when the time allows for it and today was one of those days. Teebz's Book Club is proud to review Body Check, written by Matt Christopher and published by Little, Brown and Company. This book is aimed at younger readers as Brent Mullen and his Badgers teammates look to improve on a .500 record the year before. However, it seems the team's strategy changes with the addition of a new assistant coach and his son, and this leaves Brent questioning his desire to play on the team!

Matt Christopher authored more than one hundred novels and three hundred short stories in his life. Born in Bath, Pennsylvania, Christopher was an outstanding athlete in his youth, but his interest in writing began around the age of 14. He would see his first story published at the age of 24 in a detective magazine. After graduating from high school, Christopher played professional baseball for the Smith Falls Beavers in Ontario before he was cut after he couldn't make contact. Christopher would return home to New York before a knee injury reduced his sporting endeavors entirely. He married Catherine "Cay" M. Krupa on July 13, 1940, and worked at the National Cash Register in Ithaca, New York until he retired in 1963. Upon retiring, Christopher took up his passion for writing after having had 15 books already published. Unfortunately for readers, Christopher died September 20, 1997 in Charlotte, North Carolina after complications arose in surgery for a non-malignant brain tumor at the age of 80. He won the annual Milner Award as "the author whose books are most liked by the children of Atlanta, Georgia". When asked why he wrote sports books for children, Christopher answered, "Sports have made it possible for me to meet many new people with all sorts of life stories, on and off the field, and these are grist for this writer's mill."

In reading Body Check, I felt a little out of my element with some of the explanations of terms that Matt Christopher works into the story. While I get that not all youth readers may know what a power-play is, I struggled when Christopher continually used the term "flip shot" when he really meant "wrist shot". It literally tripped me up a couple of times as I read through, so just be prepared that if you award this book to your younger player you may have to explain a term of two that isn't in the parlance of hockey.

That being said, the story contained within the covers of Body Check is one that most parents and players will struggle with or have struggled with as young players get older. While the Badgers seemingly haven't had a big season with a lot of wins recently, Brent is fairly content with the job that Coach Maxwell is doing as the Badgers' head coach. He has seen his older brother, Lee, become one of the best players at his high school, and he learned under Coach Maxwell. However, a new addition to the team in the form of Vic Seabrook and his father and former player, Mr. Seabrook, have a different attitude towards winning that Brent doesn't like.

Brent and the Badgers had been using speed and skill to win games under Coach Maxwell, but it seemed that Coach Seabrook wanted players to resort to doing anything possible to win, and that included playing dirty. Brent found himself at a crossroads as he knew that type of play wasn't right nor did he want to play that way, but he also questioned whether or not Coach Seabrook's methods accomplished more.

The kind of hockey that Coach Seabrook was teaching went against everything he believed - and not only about sports but life in general. Rules were there to be followed. He was certain of that.

But then a scary thought came to him.

Could it be that Coach Seabrook was right? That what made some players winners and others losers was that winners knew when to cheat and get away with it? Maybe that was what it was all about, and Coach Maxwell had it wrong. Maybe Lee was wrong too... after all, Lee might be a few years older than Brent, but he was basically still a kid himself.

Brent wished he could be sure.

And he wondered, too, if the way Coach Seabrook taught hockey was the way it was supposed to be played. If so, could he play that way?

Did he even want to?

And that's the struggle that Brent goes through in the book. Despite Mr. Seabrook's insistence that this is how hockey is played and that "sometimes accidents happen", Brent and several of the Badgers players struggle with this new outlook while Brent's best friend, Cam, embraces the "winning" mentality. With a game coming up against the undefeated Cyclones, will this new style of play hurt the Badgers? Will they be able to defeat the Cyclones? Will Brent finish the season as a Badger? All of these questions are answered in Body Check!

There are some strong lessons in Body Check that shouldn't be overlooked. The importance of learning important fundamentals and playing the game the right way as opposed to cheating and intimidation of an opponent is the main theme, but questions of right vs. wrong will enter the story at times, friendships will be tested, and apologies will be given and accepted through the 137-page novel. Mr. Christopher does a great job in bringing these tough moral questions to the forefront in his writing, and they are lessons that every parent should have with their young player at some point. Because of these lessons, Body Check will get the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval!

Find Body Check at your local bookstore or library in the young readers section, and let your young all-star work through the entire series of Matt Christopher books!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!