Honus and Me (Baseball Card Adventure Series)

by Dan Gutman

Overview

With more than 2 million books sold, the Baseball Card Adventures bring the greatest players in history to life!

With historical photos and back matter to separate the facts from the fiction, New York Times bestselling author Dan Gutman takes readers on a page-turning trip through baseball’s past. Perfect for young readers who love time travel stories and dream about meeting history’s greatest baseball players!

Joe Stoshack lives for baseball. He knows everything there is to know about the game—except how to play well. His specialty is striking out.

Stosh feels like a real loser, and when he takes a low-paying job cleaning a bunch of junk out of his neighbor's attic, he feels even worse—until he comes across a little piece of cardboard that takes his breath away. His heart is racing. His brain is racing. He can hardly believe his eyes. Stosh has stumbled upon a T-206 Honus Wagner—the most valuable baseball card in the world!

But he's about to find out that it's worth a lot more than money. Because it turns out Stosh has the incredible ability to travel through time using baseball cards—and now he’s headed back to 1909, when Honus Wagner played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in a World Series for the record books. But will the legendary Honus Wagner be able to teach Joe how to be a better baseball player?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780380788781
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/21/2003
Series:	Baseball Card Adventure Series
Edition description:	REISSUE
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	313,522
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 7.62(h) x (d)
Lexile:	690L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Dan Gutman is the New York Times bestselling author of the Genius Files series; the Baseball Card Adventure series, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies around the world; and the My Weird School series, which has sold more than 35 million copies. Thanks to his many fans who voted in their classrooms, Dan has received nineteen state book awards and ninety-two state book award nominations. He lives in New York City with his wife. You can visit him online at dangutman.com.

Read an Excerpt

Honus & Me
A Baseball Card Adventure

Chapter One

"Hey! Elephant ears! When you walk down the street, Stoshack, you look like a taxicab with both doors open!"

The words burned in my ears, which do stick out a little from my head, I must admit.

I was at the plate. It was two outs in the sixth inning, and I was the last hope for the Yellow Jackets. We were down by a run, and the bases were empty. Their pitcher was only eleven, but he'd already whiffed me twice.

That crack about my ears threw me off, just enough so that I tipped the ball instead of hitting it with the meat of my bat. That was strike two.

Behind me, I could hear some of the kids on my team already packing up their equipment to go home. There wasn't much chance that I was going to smack one out of the park. I hadn't hit one out of the infield all season.

It's not that I'm not strong. My arms are really big, and people tell me my chest is broader than any other seventh grader they've seen. I'm short for a twelve year-old and a little stocky.

I'm actually a pretty good ballplayer. But those insults really get to me. The last time up, I struck out when they said my legs looked like a pair of parentheses. You know-(). Bowlegged? I guess I'm kinda funny-looking. If I wasn't me, I'd probably be making fun of me, too.

Nobody likes to make the last out. I sure didn't want to strike out looking at the last pitch whiz past me. I was ready to swing at just about any thing. The pitcher went into his windup again, and I stood ready at the plate. The pitch looked good, and I brought back my arms to take a rip at it.

"Hey Stoshack!" their shortstop shouted as the ballleft the pitcher's hand, "Is that your nose or a door knocker?" I'd never heard that one before. It threw off my timing. It felt like a good swing, but I hit nothing As usual.

"Steeerike threeeeeeeeeeeee!" the ump yelled as the ball smacked into the catcher's mitt.

Again. My third strikeout of the game. Did I swing over it? Under it? Too early? Too late? I couldn't even tell. All I know is that I wanted to shrivel up and fade away. The other team hooted with glee. Even some of my teammates were snickering.

Honus & Me
A Baseball Card Adventure. Copyright © by Dan Gutman. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Editorial Reviews

"Gutman spins a delightful tale."— "The Star-Ledger"A captivating blend of fact and fantasy"—" Chicago Tribune"This novel hits at least a triple."—" Publishers Weekly"

From the Publisher

A captivating blend of fact and fantasy.

Chicago Tribune

Gutman spins a delightful tale.

Star-Ledger

Baseball, time travel and magic converge in Gutman's (The Kid Who Ran for President; The Way Baseball Works) joyfully entertaining yarn. Cleaning out his neighbor's attic, gawky 12-year-old Joe Stoshack discovers a mint-condition, T-206 Honus Wagner 1909 baseball card-"the most valuable piece of cardboard in the world." At first he's thrilled, then he feels guilty about taking the $450,000 card from its rightful owner, the wryly named 100-year-old Miss Young. Before he can conclude his moral deliberations, Joe comes face to face with Honus Wagner himself, who helps him with both his dilemma and his Little League baseball swing, courtesy of the 1909 World Series. Gutman's direct, no-frills writing style and the inclusion of vintage photos of Wagner in his heyday add a nostalgic quality to the book. The author also adds an interesting epilogue about the real Honus Wagner and why readers are extremely unlikely to find one of his baseball cards in anyone's attic. For sports fans who like a snappy plot along with the play-by-play, this novel hits at least a triple. Ages 8-12. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Cleaning out his neighbor's attic, a gawky 12-year-old discovers a mint-condition Honus Wagner 1909, $450,000 baseball card. In this addition to the Baseball Card Adventures series, baseball, time travel and magic converge for, in PW's words, a "joyfully entertaining yarn that hits at least a triple." Ages 8-12. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Gr 4-6An intriguing time-travel novel. While 12-year-old Joe Stoshack is cleaning out Miss Young's attic for spending money, he finds the world's most valuable baseball card, picturing Honus Wagner. Joe wrestles with the thought of telling Miss Young about his discovery and of returning it to her. But she had instructed him to throw out all the junk in the attic, and he knows the money raised from selling the card would help his single mother. That night, Joe wakes up to see Wagner in his bedroom, and they eventually travel back in time to the 1909 World Series. Gutman includes plenty of factual baseball information in this short novel. An appendix helps readers sort out fact from fantasy. Most young baseball-card collectors will have heard about the famous Honus Wagner cards, one of which was sold in 1991 for almost half-a-million dollars, making the premise of the story familiar. Black-and-white photos of Wagner and the series, although sometimes dark or grainy, add authenticity to the book. An enjoyable escape into another decade.Blair Christolon, Prince William Library, Manassas, VA

School Library Journal

When baseball nut Joe Stoshack, 12, finds a mint condition Honus Wagner baseball card, he discovers that it is more than the world's most valuable card: It is also a granter of wishes and a time-travel portal, through which Wagner visits him in the present, and Joe goes to the 1909 World Series. Thoroughly researched and illustrated with black-and-white period photographs of Wagner, this delightful story is hardly marred by the gratuitous subplot involving an attempt to steal the card. In the meantime, Joe lives out the dream of millions of kids: He befriends the greatest player ever, is coached by him until he becomes a top-notch player himself, learns a few life lessons along the way, and gets to play in the majors. A good fantasy for any baseball fanatic, this includes an author's note, information on the baseball card, Wagner's career stats, and his tips for kids.

Kirkus Reviews