Mickey & Me

Baseball Card Adventures #5

by Dan Gutman

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!

Genres: Sports, Baseball, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Childrens, Young Adult

160 pages, Paperback

First published March 4, 2003

About the author

The author of over 80 books in a little over a decade of writing, Dan Gutman has written on topics from computers to baseball. Beginning his freelance career as a nonfiction author dealing mostly with sports for adults and young readers, Gutman has concentrated on juvenile fiction since 1995. His most popular titles include the time-travel sports book Honus and Me and its sequels, and a clutch of baseball books, including The Green Monster from Left Field. From hopeful and very youthful presidential candidates to stunt men, nothing is off limits in Gutman's fertile imagination. As he noted on his author Web site, since writing his first novel, They Came from Centerfield, in 1994, he has been hooked on fiction. "It was fun to write, kids loved it, and I discovered how incredibly rewarding it is to take a blank page and turn it into a WORLD."

Gutman was born in New York City in 1955, but moved to Newark, New Jersey the following year and spent his youth there.

Reviews

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

summary: A boy named Joe Stoshack can travel through time with baseball cards. His dad got in a car wreck and it paralyzed himself. He told Joe to get his Micke Mantle card and go tell Mickey Mantle not to step on the drain in the yankees stadium outfield. His cousin switched the card with a different card and that made him go some where else.

opinion: I thought it was good although I wish he got to meet Mickey Mantle as a profesional.

recomendation: I think you should read this book and theres also other books in this series, but i don't know the order.

[Anthony Fletes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mickey and Me is about a boy named Joe Stoshack who to travel back in time to when Mickey Mantle was a baseball player in 1951. Instead, he winds up in 1944 on the All American Girls Professional Baseball team. He learns a lot about what women have to go through to play the game that they love. It was interesting to read about how difficult it was for women to play sports back then. I really like this book because it talks about how women struggled and faced ridicule for playing sports that were just for "boys".I like that the author put a boy in the middle of what it was like for women, to help him gain a new respect as well as gain a new perspective. This would be a great book for elementary and middle school students to read to learn about the history of sports and how it has evolved over the years.

[David Rough · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed this baseball series by Dan Gutman. Joe Stoshack possesses a special ability to travel in time by using baseball cards. In this book, he hopes to visit Micky Mantle but the card gets switched and he ends up in Wisconsin in 1944 where he finds a Micky that plays for the Milwaulkee Chicks of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL).

I was a little disappointed because I was expecting a story of #7 for the Yankees, but the information about the AAGPBL was unknown to me and I enjoyed the plot. I thought some of the sexual overtones were a little overdone for young readers, making this volume a little less engaging for me.

[Deacon Tom (Feeling Better) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun story. It does a fantastic job of explaining old time sports to the reader. I love these books. They make me feel young again.

[Zachary T · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! The ending was a great surprise and the book was a lot of fun to read!

[Alex Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book because there was a lot of detail and was very interesting. I think one of the best parts of the story was when they were talking about Mickey Mantle and who he met at the end of the book was very interesting. All of the things he had to go through in this book was just so entertaining. This book was also good because I love baseball and it gets me intrigued in reading.

[Ty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book okay. I thought it was going to be about Mickey Mantle but it wasn't. It was about Mickey Maguire, a girl baseball player. Since a WWII was going on all the men baseball players were at war and couldn't play baseball. The girls decided to play and keep baseball alive.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I is a good book I really like Dan Gutman he is a great writer i have read some of his books and they are all great.

[Teagen Moser · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was a good book.

[Morgan Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the book Mickey and Me by Dan Gutman because I have read a lot of his books in this series, and they make a really good point on what it feels like to be in the time periods that this character goes in. Joes baseball adventures are usually something to do with something that happened in the period of time that he is in now. His dad was in a car accident and was pretty serious so when Joe went to go and visit his dad he gave Joe Mickey Mantle's baseball card. Because Mickey Mantle had a knee injury in the 1951 World Series and his dad wanted him to stop that from happening and ruin Mantle's career but his cousin ended up switching the cards on Joe and sent him to the wrong time period and wrong person. Joe ended up in 1944 D day and meets Mickey Maguire a girl baseball player. I enjoyed this book because this book shows what it was like for a girl in that time period and what it was like to even be able for them to play baseball. The clothes that the girls had to wear while playing baseball, was not very good they had no protection from the ball so if they got hit hard there was nothing stopping it, that right there helped me show more what it was like. What I they had to feel while playing was even more rough, because they knew that the time the war was over meant the time girls playing baseball was over, because that means the men take it over again and the women go back to working. From these two example just show that it was horrible for the women back then and it made me think more about it and gave a lot of good facts from that time period and made it a good book. I hope you choose to read this book because it will make you think and make you feel different on what you thought it was like for the women in 1940’s.

[Trevor Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you had the chance to travel back in time to change something would you do it? I read Mickey & Me by Dan Gutman. The main character Joe Stoshack's dad got in a car accident when he told his son about one of the greatest baseball players Mickey Mantle. His dad explained to him in his hospital bed about the fall Mickey had that changed Mickey's career forever. He gave Joe a magical baseball card that can make him travel back in time, he was the last person to save Mickey Mantle's career. He started in Louisville, Kentucky and other places like a women's baseball field in Milwaukee. He ends up getting tricked by his cousin who swapped the time period so he ends up meeting female baseball players. He met someone named Dorthy McGuire who was an amazing women's baseball player. Joe started to learn that women could play the sport too and be good at it. He ends up meeting Mickey Mantle at the same age as him thirteen. The theme of the book is that you can always learn new things without trying to. This is the theme because Samantha switched the time period to women playing baseball in 1944. There Joe learned that girls can play baseball too and be good at it. One static character would be Samantha because she was always mean and bossy and didn't feel bad at the end. One dynamic character was Joe because he saw that girls can also be good at baseball and that baseball doesn't have to be an all men's sport. I rated this book a 4/5 because the book's plot was really good and interesting. The only thing I would change was the length of the book. I thought if it was longer there would be more info in the story. Overall I liked the book a lot.

[Janelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a cute story for grades 3-6 with some hard tragedies glossed over (divorce, father paralyzed in car accident.) I'm giving it 2 stars because it disturbed me that the 13-year old boy, the narrator, wakes up from time travel to see NAKED young women in the locker room and he thought he was in heaven. Really?! I expect some immature thoughts, dialog and situations in middle grade literature due to the audience's level of maturity. But naked women and being excited about older women liking you throughout the story was completely dumb to me.

Then again, the modern version of this story would have the main character a tom-boy girl that was in love with all the baseball-player women. Bleh!

[Clara]

Teresa Sullivan has shown extreme empathy in writing “Mickey and Me” and tells of special needs sister, Mickey’s troubles as paralleling her own. Her writing shows honesty and pain in equal measure and is a treasure to read. She asks the tough questions of what happens to siblings of special needs children and shows the cost on siblings of those children.

This book is a poignant look at siblings with special needs and should be required reading for all of us.

[Braxton Schieler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Easily the worst book I have ever read in my entire life. The characters were poorly developed, it was inappropriate, random, and nothing at all was developed. Time travel element was pitiful, uncreative, and didn't make any sense. The more I write the angrier I get, so I better just stop this review now. I wouldn't recommend this book for everyone, in fact I might like to perform a burning ceremony and tear out the pages one by one the next time I want to have a campfire. =

[Josh Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had some interesting twists and turns. Delves into a lesser-known topic in the history of baseball and I appreciated that. Marking it lower because the author spent a little too much time indulging middle-school boy stereotypes (like ogling naked girls and giving others the finger). Come on, Gutman! These books are supposed to be for kids!

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book I felt was great. This book was so suspenseful and kept me reading. There wasn’t really any part in the book that I didn’t want to read. At the end it just made my mind blowned. This book had a crazy ending but better than most of books.

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Writing this review so parents might be made aware that there is inappropriate content in this book. Basically a time traveling boy happens upon a shower room full of naked girls and ogles them (unbeknownst to them) for another page.

[Stacy Lewis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disgusting! One particular chapter discusses the young man having visions of naked women and talks about the wonderful fantasy of it. Then his surprise st seeing a naked man! For a kid’s book, this is extremely disappointing!

[Colby · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think mickey and me was a very good fun book to read and i would recommend it to anyone. dan gutman did a really good job with this book and i wont to read some of his other books.

[Misha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it is good so far

[Ryanm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thsu was a great book

[Colton buss · Rating 4 out of 5]

it is about a little boy and Mickey Mantle.

[Kyle L · Rating 3 out of 5]

It does a good job connecting things with history and making them fantasy.

[Martin Ewell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book...
I'll let you read it for yourself.

[Kristina · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5. I am not sure how this got past an editor. At least the factual bits are accurate. That doesn't make up for the rest, though.

[Jarrett K]

The mickey and me is a good book about a card travel adventure. The order of events is great and all the baseball card adventure books are good.

[Toby Karren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was deceiving, my son was bummed because it wasn’t really about Mickey Mantel….more about the women’s softball team.

[ELLIOT · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping for a book about Mickey Mantle and instead I got a book about someone I never heard about I think this is a example of false advertising

[Daniel]

It was surprising

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The rating is by my son, who liked it, but felt it was missing details he’d like to know.