Book Review - Tale of a Baseball Dream

Tale of a Baseball Dream by Jerry Pearlman is a great read-aloud for elementary age students. I can't wait to read it to my 2nd graders while the World Series is taking place later this month! 

Summary: Tale of a Baseball Dream is the fictitious inspirational story of Dusty Hunter, a young boy who loved to play baseball. Dusty had an incredibly strong desire to become a great baseball player, even though he was undersized, and faced many challenges and disappointments. The story evolves to entwine Dusty's life, with "The Legend of Bubba 'The Brute' Brugosee," who was considered many decades earlier, as "The Greatest Baseball Hero of All Time!" Truly an exciting baseball story for the dreamer in everyone! Amazon.com

A Quick Read: I started reading this book on a Saturday morning and read it off and on throughout the day. I was finished by evening.  This will make a great read aloud over the course of a week.

The Plan: 

• Read the book to my students over the course of a week (it has 88 pages, so I will read about 20 pages per day)
• Students will keep track of the characters, setting, and main ideas in their writing journals
• Students will summarize each reading and pose any questions they may have from the daily reading.
• Students will post interesting words on our Daily 5 Cafe Menu.
• Students will generate discussion and questions about the story on their Kidblogs.
• Students will use a Think, Tac, Toe to select and create products to show what they have they have learned. 

Teachable Moments and Big Ideas:

• Hard work = Success
• The more you practice, the better you get
• Don't give up
• Little things make a big difference

Vocabulary Words:
enthusiastically
legend
traded
groundball
pop up
homerun
disgruntled
anticipation
determined
curse
miracle
intimidating
souvenir

Think, Tac, Toe

Tale of a Baseball Dream by Jerry Pearlman

For the plans and the Think, Tac, Toe please click HERE.