Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl’s Baseball Dream

                           Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl’s Baseball Dream
Lexile Level: AD760L

            This story is an online story read by Kevin Costner and Jillian Estell and is written by Crystal Hubbard. This story is about a young black girl, Marcenia, that has the hopes of being a professional baseball player. Her parents do not approve of her being a tomboy, they want her to be a teacher, or a nurse. As the story continues a man by the name of Gabby Street, a manager of the cardinals, comes to watch them play to recruit them to his baseball camp. Street told Marcenia that he does not accept girls into his program. Marcenia tries to prove herself. In the end she gets accepted into the camp, but her parents refuse to let her go because the equipment will cost too much money. Street ends up give Marcenia cleats and her parents let her go to the camp. This story is actually a true story.

Is this a good story?
            I think this is a great story for kids to read or listen to. It has diversity with the characters and it shows Marcenia proving herself, and doing what she loves. I think this is a really powerful story.

Did the characters in the story grow? Where did we see that happen?

            Marcenia had to prove herself in order to play at the baseball camp. Marcenia had to do some risky things in order to get noticed by Gabby Street, like stealing home plate. She also had to show her parents how passionate she was about baseball and how that’s is not going change.

Did the characters seem real? Did the characters’ personalities and reasons for their actions match?

            The characters in the story are based on real people. Marcenia personality is a go-getter that will not take no for an answer. She shows this when talking to her parents, or when trying to prove Gabby Street.
Did the language throughout the book sound natural? When I read the book aloud did the characters’ sound like people talking?

            The language throughout the book sounded natural. As the readers were reading the book online it sounded like a conversation between the characters. I think the language was done perfectly in the book.
            Literally elements in this book include similes, like “It was so round a bright like a brand new baseball”.  This is referring to the moon in the sky. Another element the author included was personification, “Her shoes flew as she put on her new cleats”. The author also included flashbacks, like the main character thinks back to when her friends teased about wanting to play baseball.
            The pictures in this book were done very nicely with lots of expressions on the characters. I really like the way the illustrated made the baseball into the moon and included Marcenia playing baseball in her dresses.

            A mini lesson I would have students do for this book is to have them write about a time that they had to prove themselves. In their writing they should include details about why they had to prove themselves, and what the outcome was. 

Citation:

Hubbard, C. 2005. Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl’s Baseball Dream. Lee & Low Books.

Found at:
http://www.storylineonline.net/