Customer Reviews

Bull Catcher

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My 10 year old son and I read this book together over a period of 2 weeks. My son hates to read but loves sports so this was my opportunity to encourage a partnership between something he didn't like and something he loves. This book brought a new interest into his life. It is superbly written with just the right amount of humor, parental annoyance, not-to-hot love life & tragedy. Bulls everyday life as well as his baseball career kept us wanting more after each chapter. My son has requested a copy for Christmas which is a milestone in itself. And when we were through reading Bull Catcher my son said "I'm going to miss Bull", well so will I.

For as long as he can remember, two things have been in Neil's life--baseball and his best friend Jeff. Jeff is the only person who loves baseball more than Neil does, and the relationship between the two of them has always revolved around the game. Now Neil is a senior in high school. If he doesn't get picked up by a college team, this may be his last year to play baseball.

Neil decides to do a paper about his baseball experience for his senior project. He has kept records of his games and statistics all through high school and as he starts to put together his paper he looks back through these notes and begins to remember the things that were happening in his life not only on the baseball field but off it as well.

He remembers dealing with his mother, who had him when she was in college and left him to live with his grandparents. He remembers convincing Phuong, the new kid, to try out for the team as a pitcher, and he remembers having to be the one to coach Phuong through the experience.

Most of all, though, Neil remembers Sandi, the girl he lusted after for as long as he could remember. Now that it is his senior year of high school, will Neil finally be able to let her go and maybe start a real relationship with Bev, the girl who obviously likes him a lot? Will he be able to come to terms with the fact that baseball might not be a part of his future?

I liked that this book was about baseball but it was still interesting to someone who isn't very into the game. The relationships among the characters were more important to this story than the baseball itself. I also liked the complexity of Neil's life and the fact that he didn't spend his time whining about things, but made the best of what he had.

I didn't like the way Neil was so focused on Sandi for so many years and then he immediately focused on Jenna while she was around. It seemed really stupid of him to go for these girls he new he didn't have a chance of getting.

Bull Catcheris a book about a teenager named Neil and his friends Jeff and Billy.The book follows them all through high school.This book is good for ages eleven through fifteen.The book is good becasue it has a great story line.It is also good because it tells about baseball and show how hard it is to get a athletic scholarship to any major school.Also this book deals with serious issues and isn't suitable for so young ages.

If you like baseball and surprises, you don't won't to miss Alden R.Carter's version of Bull Catcher. The book starts out with Neil Larsen alsoknown as Bull when he is in the ninth grade.
Bull and four of his friends are about to try out for baseball at their school. Out of the four of them that tried out, three of them made it to varsity. The one kid that didn't make it to varsity was really mad, but he decided that it was better than nothing. The varsity's first couple of games they played wasn't that good but then a new guy came to their school and tried out as pitcher. Bull was in charge of making the new pitcher the best in the league. After Bull worked with Phoung he did become the pitcher in the league. I know that because the coach said to Bull "Good job, now we have the best pitcher". During one of Bull's summers during his high school career, he went to a camp to be a counselor. While he was at camp he meet a girl that he liked so much that when he was around her, he couldn't talk right. He started to be able to talk to her when camp ended. The next summer he was going to go there again, but his mom made him go to L.A. with her. While Bull was in L.A. one of his friend got killed by drinking and driving.
Other than that, I think that Bull Catcher is a interesting book.

Bull Catcher has made me love Baseball. I wish i could find books very similar to it, but with a finished ending, as you reach the last couple of pages, you have so many questions, and so little answers. I wish the author would start a similar sotry, but turn it in to a saga, that continues with a new title every month or so. I'm 14. Thanks Alden R. Carter, this was a great book, so was your last book, Between a Rock and A Hard Place.

Erik

(...)It was a good book. It had a lot of forshadowing in it maybe a little too much because it was always giving you clues and little hints about things that were going to happen latter on in the book and when you put it down you already figured out what was going to happen so you didn't want to start reading it again. The book had a lot of sttings in it and that made the book good because sence it had a lot of settings in it so it was always discribing somthing.
The book was about two kids that there life long dream is to play baseball for the major legues. They play baseball all the time even during the winter that is how much they love baseball. One kid is a realy good catcher and his name is bull. The other one is a pretty good pitcher and a realy good short stop and he nows his stuff, his name is Jeff.
The two kids meet this exchange student from Korea that is a realy good pitcher he just doesn't know it yet and his name is Phuong. They all try out for the school varcity baseball team after they work on Phoung's pitch. Jeff played like he usaely does and its good but its not what the coach wants so he gets benched. Phuong and Bull doe good so there second behind the starters.
Bull gets in trouble he can't play for a little while and a whole big goes on becuase his team is playing there rivalsand he dosen't get to play and he turned sixteen so his grand pa wants him to drive there but he doesn't want to watch the team.
I would tell you more but it would ruin the story for anyone who wants to read the story's. I recommend it to every one because it's a great book and it has a little bit of every thing in it.

I have read many sports books but this was not the my favorite. The sory line is dull,hard to follow and gets boring. This story is about a boy named Neil. For as long as Neil can remember, the two things have that have been in his life were baseball and his best friend Jeff. Jeff was Neils best friend in high school and always hung out with Neil. Neil was an amazing catcher and was the best player on his high school baseball team. Neil loved baseball alot and loved winning games but hated losing them. He has some pressure and stress as his team nears the Championship. Neils senior project was to wright in a journal and he chose to write about playing baseball. In this journal Neil kept records of his games and statistics all through high school and as he starts to put together his paper he looks back through these notes and begins to remember the things that were happening in his life. This helped him reflect on his issues in his life like his mother bothering him about college and the girl ,Bev, who he really likes. This book was average and I would not recommend this to a friend only because this book deals with alot of Neils issuses and not so much baseball.

Summary- When Neil (Bull) Larsen was young, his mom and dad got divorced and then his mom went to Los Angeles and became a business woman. He then went to live with his grandma and grandpa, then his grandma died, and his grandpa started dating other women. Neil, a catcher, and his best friend, Jeff Hanson, a short-stop, would play baseball year round and would workout in the winter; they were die-hard baseball players. Before the first baseball season, Neil and Jeff got a Vietnamese kid named Ngo Huynh Phuong (No Win Fong) to try out for the baseball team and it turned out that he was good after practicing for a while. During the baseball season, a kid named Billy was being abused by his father. After a couple of seasons, Ngo Huynh Phuong decided to stop playing baseball and that made Jeff angry because they had a good team with him. While Neil was home one day, his grandpa had a heart attack and that frightened Neil. After the third season, Neil decided to "hang up" baseball for a little while and got a job at a camp called Forgotten Pine. While he was at this camp, Billy got drunk and died in a car crash. Neil's and Jeff's team made it to the championship game and played Caledonia for the title, and Neil had the game winning hit. After the game, Neil saw a college scout, who told him he was a good catcher but too slow. After the season was over, Neil and Jeff were inpatient and could not wait for the first pitch of the new season.
Setting- The setting is mainly on a baseball field in different parts of Wisconsin but it also takes place in parts of Los Angeles. Neil wants to stay in Wisconsin with his grandpa and friends, but his mom wants him to move out with her to Los Angeles. During these baseball games, the whole town of Shipley is going crazy and are waiting for the baseball team to win the championship game.
Recommendations- I would recommend this book to people that love to read suspenseful and baseball books. The author really captures my attention to what it would be like to be on a winning team. I liked the way the author tells how the previous baseball seasons went and then they come together and beat the team in the championship game, the team which always would beat them. Even though this book is amazing, I perhaps would not recommend this book to people that don't like swearing because this book has quite a bit of swearing in it. Other than swearing, this book is the ultimate baseball book for any baseball player or fan.
The genre of this book is sports fiction and I rate it 5 out of 5 stars because it is a great book and it will hold your attention through the whole book.

This book is about a boy named Neil Larson. His nickname is Bull, because of his size. He and his best friend Jeff, are die-hard baseball fans, kind of like me. They play all year, starting in spring, going through summer and fall, but once there is snow on the ground, they practice inside and do weightlifting every other day.
This was definitely one of the best books that I have ever read (mostly because of the baseball theme to it). One of the many things that I liked about this book was that it was very realistic. The team was good, but they did not win every single game, just like in real life. They blew some teams out, but sometimes, they were blown out too. One kid on their team was even abused by his father, which also happens in real life. Bull and Jeff help him out the first time, but later when his dad starts abusing Billy again, Neil could care less because Billy stole his girlfriend.
I think that only kids above the age of 12 should read this book because there is a lot of swearing.

Neil "Bull" Larson is a very big kid who loves to play baseball (he is a catcher). His mom is a businesswoman who lives in L.A. Bull's grandma died when he was still a little kid so now he lives with just his grandpa. He goes to High School in Shipley, Wisconsin, and plays baseball for the school's team. In the beginning, Neil is playing for the jayvee team as a Junior. A Vietnamese kid named Phuong moves to their school and Bull and his best friend, Jeff (shortstop), try to convince him to pitch for their team, but it was a lot harder than they had expected. They saw him to be a great pitcher because of his long arms. They were right that he could throw hard, and he was also very accurate. For the first ten minutes anyway. He just started throwing wild and everything. After a while, Phuong decided that this was not for him, so he decided that he did not want to play baseball. After a couple of days, Jeff began to get really mad at him. Bull talked to Phuong and found out why this always happens to him. He said he just concentrates to hard. So, Bull worked on Phuong's control with pitching. By the time that the season started, he decided to play baseball. Neil and him were so good that the next year they played varsity as Sophomores. Bull felt bad that he made to varsity before Jeff did. That year they finished third. The next year, Jeff was on varsity with everyone else, and he was named captain. They were tied for first place going into a tiebreaking final game of the year. They lost that and is was very tough for Bull to get over it. That summer, he became a counselor at a summer camp and had a great time.