20,000 Baseball Cards Under the Sea

by Jon Buller, Susan Schade

Roger's eccentric, junk-collecting friend Kenneth takes him on an awesome undersea ride in a homemade submarine. Their visit to a subaqueous cavern turns up a wonderful a cache of supervaluable baseball cards!


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Picture Books, Adventure, Fiction, Childrens, Mermaids, 2nd Grade

48 pages, Hardcover

First published August 27, 1991

Reviews

[Austin Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book at a rummage sale and seeing the cover immediately awakened a hidden memory in me: I was sure I read this as a young child. So of course I bought it and had to reread it, and surprisingly, quite enjoyed. I thought it was funny.
It's very short and targeted towards younger kids, obviously, so don't expect much depth to it, (except the depths they go in the submarine) but it was a fun dose of nostalgia.
3⭐

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book strongly reminded me of the kind of book I would have checked out of my school library when I was like 7, so I gave it a read. I have to say, the plot was a bit disturbing!

Basically a kid and an old man are besties, but they each have problems (bullies for the boy, taxes for the old man). One day the old guy decides to take the kid on his submarine and journey to his underwater lair, where the man had secretly planned to live with the boy for all eternity, to escape their problems on the surface.

As terrifying as that sounds, it all works out. The child notices the old guy has a bunch of very valuable baseball cards and says: "if we sell all your old baseball cards, all of our surface problems are solved! You can pay your taxes and I can buy a car." I guess the old guy hadn't considered how to pay his taxes beyond "Step 1: Abduct Child" because he seems surprised and delighted by this plan. They shake on it, and the story ends with them both enjoying their riches--the old guy is seen hangliding with a mermaid bride, while the kid drives around with his mom in a corvette.

Pretty weird book, but honestly back in 1991 when this was written, we still thought it was okay that Michael Jackson had a creepy amusement park that kids could visit. An old man taking you to live with him under the sea probably seemed fun back then.

[Melinda Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roger and his older friend, Kenneth, both like to collect things. Kenneth collects junk and makes recycled stuff out of it. Sometimes they share. Kenneth showed Roger his latest invention, which took them both into the sea. Roger was very surprised when Kenneth showed him an underwater cave that was full his junk. He said the merpeople brought him things from old shipwrecks and then he made neat stuff for them. Roger finds a chest full of baseball cards worth lots of money. What do you think they do with the cards? This book will held children learn how to be better friends.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blast from the past. Other than some strange anti-tax stuff I didn't remember, it still holds up.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wild ride with a surprise genre shift in the middle. Very cute.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute story for young kids.

[Bailee Sanders · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not care much for this book. It would be okay to keep in the classroom library, but I feel like it would be hard for me to assign this book. I had trouble getting into it. There was no build up and that is what keeps the reader interested. If I could not get into the book, I cannot make my students read it as an assignment.

[Deborah Harris]

AR Quiz No. 7351 EN Fiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: LG - BL: 2.5 - AR Pts: 0.5
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP, RV, VP

[Cws]

JEAR2-Bul

[Mr. Tedrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

He is a collecttor he

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this may not satisfy the advocates of "great" children's literature, I bet kids will love it!

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was fun