This is the first installment in Gutman’s Baseball Card Adventure series. Joe Stoshack is just a normal kid and struggling member of his baseball team. Between his lack of sports prowess and his parents difficulties, Joe feel pretty down on his luck. When a neighbor asks him to clean out her attic, Joe reluctantly agrees. Soon he’s discovered something of incredible value amid all her junk, a very rare Honus Wagner baseball card. It’s through this baseball card that Joe learns he can time travel. He also learns from Honus how important it is to do the right thing.
This will be most interesting to readers with a fairly strong baseball knowledge. A few chapters basically give play-by-plays of a game, which will prove fairly dull to those who don’t care about the sport. Joe starts out as a bit selfish, which in my mind made him less likable, but he improves by the end. I don’t think kids will be at all bothered by Joe’s personality flaws the way I was.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – Stosh’s parents are in the midst of a divorce. Honus left a sweetheart behind in Louisville.
Profanity – “shoot,” “sucks,”
Death, Violence and Gore – Kids make up a rumor about an old woman that she is a witch who once murdered a child. A neighbor has old guns in her house. During a baseball game one team taunts the other “we’re gonna murder you.” Honus Wagner’s mother died when he was young. There’s a small amount of bleeding due to injury during a major league game. A player threatens to tear another’s head off. Joe is attacked by an adult man for his card. The man wrestles him to the ground. An old lady aims a gun at people. In the author’s note at the end we learn that Honus’s brother died of apoplexy at age 55. We also learn when Honus and his wife died.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Baseball cards were initially printed by tobacco companies to help sell their products. There are cigar advertisements in a ballpark.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.
