Honus and Me

 

Honus and Me

Dan Gutman
Avon, 1997 140 pages
Grades 3-6
Sports/Fantasy

The Baseball Card Adventures series #1

Joe "Stosh" Stoshack loves playing baseball. He is a pretty decent player--except when the other team gets into his head. They pick on his physical characteristics, which are less than ideal and of which he is sensitive. While cleaning out his neighbor's attic he stumbles upon a mint baseball card of Honus Wagner, which happens to be the rarest card in the world and worth thousands of dollars. Stash's parents are divorced and money is tight living with his single mom. Stash ventures to the local baseball card store to possibly sell the card, but the less-than-scrupulous owner tries to cheat him out of it. While trying to decide what to do one night, the Honus card that Stash is holding begins to tingle. Suddenly he finds Honus himself sitting in his bedroom. In the morning Stash thinks it must have been a dream, yet Honus shows up at the ball field the next day. Things get even weirder when Stash travels back to 1909, where Honus' team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, are playing in the World Series. Stosh gets to see his idol in action and even gets a chance to play himself. Stosh's life will never be quite the same again!

Dan Gutman, of My Weird School fame, as well as other popular series and stand-alone titles for children, certainly knows what will appeal to his readers. All of his books are high interest and this series is no exception. The premise of The Baseball Card Adventures is that kids travel through time via a baseball card and meet historic ball players and learn a bit about the time period. Baseball fans gobble this series up, but even non-sports folks, such as myself, will also enjoy, possibly picking up some facts about the game along the way. I love anything time travel, so that is my hook. Although there is enough Baseball to satisfy sports kids, it does not overwhelm the story and there honestly is something for everybody. It is also a story about a boy discovering how to believe in himself and choosing the right thing to do, when the unethical choice is so appealing. The reading level is perfect for kids leaving easier chapter books behind, yet not quite ready for Mike Lupica. Gutman provides biographical information and historic photos in the back of the volume to show readers the facts behind the fiction. First published in the 90's, this series has held up and is still an easy sell to both reluctant and serious readers alike.