Roberto and Me (historical fiction)

While I was in the library, I ran across a book titled, Roberto and Me, written by Dan Gutman. This book caught my attention because as a child, I remember reading a book about Roberto Clemente. I did not know there were other books out there based on him. This book is about a thirteen-year-old boy named Joe who discovered that when he held his father’s baseball cards, he actually time traveled back in time. Joe, being a fanatic of baseball decided to go back and meet his favorite baseball player, Roberto Clemente. During his time travel, he learned a lot about what life was like in 1969 and he also learned a lot about Roberto Clemente and his career.

This book falls under the historical fiction genre. This is because although this book is fiction, it tells an accurate story about who Roberto Clemente was and what happened in his lifetime.  The main characteristic of historical fictions is that they accurately talk about an event, person, or time period that has occurred in the past (20 years or greater) with or without fictional characters. In this book in specific, the author writes a person from history with a fictional character and story plot. This is a short story, so there are no illustrations in this book.

Roberto and Me features a multidimensional character, that changes as he learns more and more about the past, how people lived (i.e. segregation) and about his favorite baseball player. The setting of this book is set in 2010 in Chicago, however, it does switch back and forth from there to 1969, and in the end travels to the future to 2080. I believe the theme of this book is that things happen for a reason so you should not try to change history. The style of this book is easy to read and follow and is made for a mature reader due to the length of the story.  

An activity that could be used with this book is to have students write a reflection about how their life would have been different if they lived in 1969. This activity will help children realize the culture differences of the past and now; it also enables them to reinforce what they have learned while reading the book. A reader response question that could be used is “what in the book surprised you the most,” this question forces children to reflect on the book and how the events impacted their feelings. Reflection questions help challenge what readers have learned or taken away from the book they have just learned.

I believe this is a great book for children to read, even if they are not baseball fans. This book is not only informational, but it also is entertaining to read. One can gain many new insights after reading it such as the power of man and how it can affect our future in ways that we would least expect it to. Dan Gutman is a great author and he has many books like Roberto and Me that tell stories of many historical baseball players such as Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner. I recommend children who are into baseball to follow his series.   

Gutman, D. (2010). Roberto and me. Harper Collins Publishers: New York, NY.