Resource Review 1
Resource Review #2
Shannon Brown
INFO683_900
Professor Denise Agosto
November 12, 2013
Gutman, Dan. (1995). They Came From Center Field. New York: Scholastic Inc.
It is time for a game that the Silent But Deadly (SBD) baseball team will never forget. “Bloop” Jones and his baseball team had never lost when it comes to baseball. They are known to be the hardest team to beat among other teams. One hot summer night, a baseball team from another school decides to play a friendly game against the SBDs on a field by Crow’s Woods. With the bases loaded, two outs in the ninth inning, Bloop pitched a third striketo Mitch, a batter from Tatum School. As Bloop was about to claim victory for his team, a mysterious lightshow with loud thunder appeared just beyond the fields at Crow’s Woods. The baseball team from Tatum School departed the game quickly, and left the SBDs on the field alone.
Bloop decided he would lead his team to the mysterious lights through Crow’s Woods bleak and dark woods. Once the team reached a clearing, they see three triangular-shaped spaceships hovering off the ground. The team witnessed the spaceships unloading nine strange soda machine objects. As Bloop approached the soda machines, he insisted on the aliens to “come out” and show themselves. After a brief Earth friendly introduction, Bloop and the SBDs realized the “soda machines” are indeed the aliens. The only mission the aliens needed to accomplish was to learn the game of baseball so they can teach it to their people back home.
The SBDs compromised with the aliens by telling them that they will teach them how to play a game of baseball only if the aliens agreed to give them a ride on one of their spaceships. The aliens negotiated that if the SBDs win the game, they can have a ride on their spaceships. If the SBDs refused to teach the aliens how to play, the mission will change to destroying planet Earth. With Earth’s future in stake, the SBDs decided it is best to teach the aliens how to play a game of baseball since they never lose.
Teaching the aliens a game of baseball was not as easy as the SBDs hoped for. The aliens misunderstood simple baseball terminology such as homerun, home plate, run and curveball. In fact, the aliens kept throwing curveballs to the SBDs by changing the rules of the game. Bloop and the SBDs often got frustrated and needed to be more patient with the aliens. After the aliens had hit several homeruns, the SBDs realized they were all out of baseballs. With no more balls to play, the aliens decided they were done learning the game, which called for the team to forfeit. Before the aliens departed the field, Bloop tried to explain that it was the aliens who lost the game, not the SBDs. Unfortunately, the aliens did not believe Bloop and refused to be the losers. Luckily for Bloop, he had the Official Rules of Baseball Handbook, and explained how the aliens lost. The aliens agreed to the official rules, and gave that thrilling ride to the SBDs on one of their spaceships as they had promised.
They Came From Center Field was Dan Gutman’s very first fiction book he wrote. Dan Gutman used his love of baseball, and combined it with a fantasy twist to write They Came From Center Field. As a child, Dan Gutman played in the little leagues and had always loved the sport. However, he was not as good as he portrayed Bloop Jones in They Came From Center Field. Bloop Jones was SBDs best player. He could pitch fast curveballs, and was portrayed the leader of the team. As for Dan Gutman, he was afraid that he would get hit by the ball. Dan Gutman never did give up playing baseball. He decided to research information about the sport, and wrote various books for children in nonfiction and fiction format.
They Came From Center Field is an easy book to read, and has 90 pages. The descriptions Dan Gutman used throughout the book were intended to build figurative language for the young reader. By using onomatopoeia, the reader will have more of a better understanding of what the characters heard. One hilarious character aspect Dan Gutman wrote was the aliens’ names. Each alien identified themself as one of the five popular fast food restaurants: McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. Neither the aliens nor the SBDs acknowledged that the names were from fast food restaurants, but the reader should be able to grasp that concept. The reading level for They Came From Center Field is intended for a 4th grader. However, children in higher grades will love the reading this story of Bloop Jones and the SBDs one amazing night of baseball.