Jackie & Me
Avon Books, Inc.
1999
Jackie & Me is the
Sequel to another book by Dan Gutman, "Honus & Me. Joe Stoshack has
the ability to travel through time with baseball cards. In Honus & Me he travels to 1909 to meet
Honus Wagner. In Jackie & Me, Joe
gets a Jackie Robinson baseball card and time travels back to 1947 to go on an
adventure with Robinson during his rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers. There’s a big difference for Joe this time
because the color of Joe’s skin changes, too.
Joe’s experiences change his view of history and his definition of
courage. The story also shows what Jackie Robinson went through to become the
first African-American to break the "color barrier" that existed in
professional sports.
Dan Gutman was born in New
York City on October 19, 1955, but he grew up in Newark, New Jersey, where he
spent his childhood. He attended
Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, graduating in 1977 with a degree
in psychology. He went on to graduate school, but then decided he wanted to be
a writer. He wrote mostly non-fiction
until 1994. Then he published his first
fiction novel. Dan says “Finally, after fifteen years, I figured out
what my career should be - writing fiction for kids and visiting schools. For
the first time, I felt that I was doing something I was good at, something that
was fun, creatively rewarding, and appreciated by an audience. “ He lives in Haddonfield, New Jersey with his
wife Nina and children Sam and Emma.
1.
Discuss with students the words prejudice and segregation.
2.
Have students list examples of segregation and prejudice
that are present today.
3.
Have students brainstorm what they think it might have been
like to live in the 1940s. (Make a transparency to use for later.)
4.
Provide students with some history about baseball -l
especially in the 1940s.
The
forties were a difficult time for baseball, but a new era beckoned. Although it
was not a written rule, baseball had always been racially segregated. In 1947,
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, joining the Brooklyn Dodgers. But
integration was a very slow process. Other teams were slow to adopt
African-American and other minority players. It was another ten years before
all of the teams had integrated, and it wasn’t until the early sixties that
professional baseball could truly call itself integrated.
http://www.baseball1.com/bb-data/e-hist-2.
After Reading
Extension
1.
Have students design
their own baseball cards. They can use
pictures they draw, photos, or pictures from magazines.
2.
Students can complete research the lives of
other famous baseball players (or choose another sport).
Evaluation
The students’ character analysis, charts, discussion and
stories can be used to evaluate their comprehension of the book.