Customer Reviews

Roberto & Me (Baseball Card Adventures)

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

 

 

Dan Gutman's Baseball Card Adventure books make for great reading, especially for those in the target audience of ages 10-14. I have to believe that most boys still entertain dreams of playing in the Major Leagues, so these books serve as a great hook for introducing the joy of reading to even the most reluctant of young readers. Not only do these books allow the reader to learn more about some true legends of the game, they also offer mini-history lessons on the times in which those players played. In this case in particular, readers are also exposed to an extraordinary role model who played the game the way it was supposed to be played and also devoted his life to making the world a better place.

Roberto Clemente has been called baseball's last great hero. He was a great hitter and a truly exceptional outfielder who left an indelible mark in the record books. He also helped pave the way for Latin American players in the Major Leagues. Above all else, though, he was a great humanitarian, which is why baseball's highest honor for community service is named for him. His life came to a tragic end on December 31, 1972, when he was killed in a plane crash attempting to deliver much-needed aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

After learning of a personal connection between his Spanish teacher and Roberto Clemente, Joseph "Stosh" Stoshack decides to go back in time and warn Clemente not to board the doomed flight. Stosh, you see, has the unique ability to travel through time by way of baseball cards. All he needs is to get his hands on a Clemente card, and he will be transported back to the year of the card. In this case, he ends up with more of an adventure than he bargained for when he is transported to Woodstock just in time to hear Jimi Hendrix's legendary performance. Hitching a ride with some hippies to Cincinnati, he learns about the anti-war movement and goes on his first date (with a girl who is rather hilariously clueless about the game of baseball) to see Clemente and the Pirates take on the Reds. But will he get a chance to meet Clemente? And can he convince # 21 not to board that fateful plane on New Year's Eve of 1972?

I really enjoyed reading this book, and I have to say I learned a lot about Roberto Clemente's life and legacy in the process. I have to admit that I was a little turned off when the author chose to introduce a wholly unrelated political agenda (complete with the standard scare tactics associated with it) toward the end of the story, but the rest of the book is too good for me to give it any less than five stars. I doubt that baseball cards are as integral a part of childhood these days as they were for me, but I have no doubt that many young boys - and more than a few young girls - will love this book and yearn to read more of the growing number of books in Gutman's Baseball Card Adventures series.

I am 8 years old and have read almost all of Dan Gutman's Baseball Card Adventure books. Roberto & Me is awesome! It was really cool how Joey travels through time. I loved the book so much I read it all in one day.
Mom's turn- My son likes to put off his reading homework until the last minute. Dan Gutman's adventure books have changed his whole attitude towards reading. They are exciting to read, mixing baseball reality with baseball fantasy. What a fun way to combine history with adventure. Congratulations to Mr. Gutman as he hit another homerun with Roberto & Me!

This book is like very bizzare. Sunrise kisses Joe in the lips. "Ewwwwwwwww!" But what is so bizzare is that Joe actually see's his grandson from 2080. His name is Bernard Stoshack. He is the same age as Joe. That's weird? And very disturbing.

I have read almost everything by Dan Gutman and this was by far the best book of his. It was interesting to learn more about Roberto Clemente. I like the books in this series where Stosh tells people that he is from the 21st century and this one was especially good because the people believed him. It was so good that I had to reread it right after I finished it!

My five-year-old son loves baseball. He loves it when we read him books in approximately the age range for which this book was intended. He was interested in finding out about Roberto Clemente. I am fascinated by time travel, and I love kids'/young adult books. I am a liberal and very much in favor of protecting the environment, cutting carbon emissions and use of petroleum products, etc. So this book should've been a hit with us on all fronts, right?
But to begin with, it wasn't very engaging. The first pages, instead of drawing us in, bored my son almost to the point that he didn't want to keep reading. Since we hadn't read the other books in the series, the characters weren't beloved to us, and they didn't do anything to become so. The focus of the book wasn't really on Clemente to any major extent. We had just read Lucky: Maris, Mantle, and My Best Summer Ever by Wes Tooke and enjoyed it. I imagined that Gutman's hero, Stosh, would get to know Clemente the way Lucky got to know Maris and Mantle, but in reality we barely saw Clemente in the book. So the giant word "Roberto" on the cover of the book was misleading; the book was about Stosh, first and foremost.
I was willing to suspend my disbelief that baseball cards could send Stosh back in time. One of my favorite kids' books features a talking blue moose as one of the major characters. If it makes sense within the flow of the story, that's fine with me. But the time-travel thing became ridiculous to me the moment Stosh landed himself in the middle of Woodstock. Not just the town, but the FESTIVAL. I had trouble buying the "he just happened to randomly show up in this place and moment out of all the places and moments in 1969" thing. And Jimi Hendrix was on the stage--how convenient!
Stosh got beaten up by hippies who thought he was trying to hurt Jimi, then joined a 1969 girl just about his age to make his way to where Clemente would be. Of course he managed to find Clemente (this time getting beaten up by a full-grown man in the process) and warn Clemente to stay away from the airplane on which he was destined to die. I won't post spoilers of that part of the story, but I did feel like Stosh could've learned something that he didn't actually learn.
So Stosh went back to his world. His mom didn't seem surprised or concerned at his appearance, despite the fact that he must've looked like he'd been hit by a truck by this point. The night of his return, his great-grandson showed up from the future. Surprise! So Stosh got to take another trip, this time to a post-apocalyptic future where tornados came every week, no one had electricity, and kids ran around the bases clockwise. The great-grandson, Bernard, still managed to have new baseball cards for Major League players even though there were supposedly no cities left. Bernard's parents managed to farm despite the weekly tornados and Dust Bowlesque landscape. Bernard wasn't sure the human race would last much longer--which you'd think would kill the market for baseball cards, but apparently not.
Stosh's great-grandson seemed to lay all the blame for the melting of the polar ice caps on Stosh. Bernard was adamant, even angry, about the fact that recycling and taking shorter showers weren't NEARLY enough. No, Stosh must stop the world from using petroleum. So this kid who couldn't even be legally employed yet, much less vote, was instructed to somehow get everyone to use alternative fuels. A worthy task, to be sure!
Frankly, I'm surprised that Bernard's terrifying world didn't give my son nightmares. Heck, I'm surprised that it didn't give ME nightmares. And I find it frustrating that Gutman suggested that the little things we do don't make a difference. Most of the kids in his target audience won't be able to convince their parents to buy solar panels, given the upfront cost of solar panels even after rebates. The parents may want an alternative electricity source but not be able to afford it. However, the kids MAY be able to influence their parents to recycle, switch to more efficient light bulbs and appliances, buy reusable things instead of disposable ones, use petroleum-free dish soap, etc. Any positive action is better than no positive action, and discouraging small efforts is not going to help anything.
Basically, I'm glad that authors like Gutman get sports-loving kids who maybe aren't interested in reading anything that isn't about sports to pick up books and, perhaps, broaden their horizons--but I found this book to be far-fetched and less than pleasant.

I think this book is good for all ages. the only downside is it doesnt have anough pages and it had my son believing wild things