Mickey and Me (A Baseball Card Adventures Series) ANNOTATION
When Joe travels back in time to 1944, he meets the Milwaukee Chicks, one of the only all-female professional baseball teams in the history of the game.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
When Joe Stoshack's dad ends up in the hospital after a car accident, he has two words to say to his son: Mickey Mantle. For Stosh has a special power — with a baseball card in hand, he can travel back in time. And his dad has a rare card — Mantle's valuable 1951 rookie card. "I've been thinking about it for a long time. Go back to 1951. You're the only one who can do it," Dad whispers.
That night Stosh grips the card and prepares for another magical adventure. But when he opens his eyes, he's not in Yankee Stadium — he's in Milwaukee on June 8, 1944. And how he wound up there is not half as surprising as what he finds!
About the Author
Dan Gutman is the author of many books for young readers, including the four previous Baseball Card Adventures: Honus & Me, Jackie & Me, Babe & Me, and Shoeless Joe & Me. When he is not writing books, Dan is very often visiting a school. He lives in Haddonfield, New Jersey, with his wife, Nina, and their children, Sam and Emma.
FROM THE CRITICS
School Library Journal
Gr 4-8-Gutman has hit on a winning concept, combining sports, time travel, and historical fiction. Joe Stoshack has the remarkable ability to travel back in time using baseball cards. In this fifth book in the series, which stands on its own, Joe's father requests that his son go back to 1951 to stop Mickey Mantle from being hurt in a game. Unfortunately, as Joe is fading into the past, his cousin takes the Mickey Mantle card and replaces it with a Dorothy "Mickey" Maguire card and Joe ends up in 1944, dressed in a chicken suit, playing the role of a mascot for the Milwaukee Chicks. Boys especially will laugh at and identify with the scenes of Joe in a women's locker room and his attraction to Merle Keagle, the Chicks' Blond Bombshell. The chapter in which he meets 13-year-old Mickey Mantle on a train is a stretch, but Gutman gently teaches about women in baseball and World War II and its effects on the home front. Photographs of players and newspaper headlines add realism to the story. A final chapter offers explanations about what is factual and what is fictional in the book. Interested readers can get more information about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from the organization's Web site and from reading one of several books Gutman lists as resources.-Michael McCullough, Byron-Bergen Middle School, Bergen, NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Joe Stoshack, known as Stosh, has a special gift. Just by holding a historic baseball card, he can travel back in time to interact with the player on that card. In previous adventures he has met Honus Wagner, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, and Shoeless Joe Jackson. This time, however, thereﾽs a bit of a twist. His father has been severely injured in a car accident. Although barely conscious, he tells Joe that he has assured his future education by acquiring a Mickey Mantle Rookie card worth $75,000. He also suggests that much of the pain and "what ifs" regarding Mantleﾽs career could be eliminated if Joe could travel back to the 1951 World Series to prevent an injury that permanently affected Mantleﾽs knees. Thatﾽs the plan, but a last-minute card switch by Joeﾽs little cousin sends him to the wrong year, the wrong league, and the wrong Mickey. It is D-Day 1944 and he is in the clubhouse of the Milwaukee Chicks of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, where he meets their star catcher Mickey Maguire. What an eye opener for Joe. He sees the dedication that spurs these talented women to accept ridiculous restrictions in order to play the game they love. Forced to wear skirted uniforms that cannot protect them from painful bruises, faced with fines for failing to wear lipstick during games, they manage a level of excellence that amazes Joe, who has always believed that girls could not play baseball. He also witnesses their courage as they wait for news about loved ones fighting in the war, as well as their underlying guilt because they also know that the end of the war and the return of the men will mean an end to their baseball careers, and "back to the kitchen." Like Gutmanﾽsprevious works (Shoeless Joe and Me, 2002, etc.) in the series, the plot is teaming with baseball action, photographs, news clippings, a strong sense of time and place filled with sharp insights, and subplots involving Joe and his own problems and emotional growth. In an afterword, elements of fact and fiction are carefully separated and some fascinating information about the AAGPBL and its players are added. A thoroughly entertaining mix of fantasy, baseball, and history. (Fiction 10-12)
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