Monster in the Outfield (Monster and Me)

Monster and Me

by Robert Marsh, Tom Percival (Illustrator)

During a faculty versus the students baseball game, the teachers try some dirty tricks to win. Luckily, the students have a monster on their team. With the help of Gabby's beastly pet, Dwight, the student team might stand a chance of winning. Or, maybe not! Turns out Dwight's not exactly a skilled player.

33 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Robert Marsh grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, but longed to live somewhere else. He pretended not to live in Omaha by reading lots of books. Every week, Robert checked out twenty books from the library. Since he didn't have time to read all those books, he would read the first chapter of each one -- then make up the rest of the story. Robert now makes up stories for a living and doesn't live in Omaha. Dreams do come true.

Reviews

[Tara Strosnider · Rating 5 out of 5]

when the students take on the faculty baseball team, the teachers try some dirty tricks to win. Luckily, the students have a monster on their team. With help from Gabby's beastly pet Dwight, they might have a chance at victory. Or, maybe not! Their cleanup hitter is turning out to be a monster mess.

I love reading the books in this series their funny i cant stop laughing when i read them the images are great and beautiful for a graphic novel very quick for me to read cant wait to read the others to this series :)

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started to include "humor" as another category, because the story attempts that from time to time, but it just isn't particularly funny on those occasions. For instance, when the school's 4-H club instructor is brought into the story, he's a really BAD stereotype of a "hick" farmer, complete with having been given a "Baseball for Hillbillies" book to learn from.
That said, the writing was a lot better than the art, which often felt rushed and sloppy.
The story itself, about underdogs winning against truly bizarre odds, would have been better if the "ringer" player that the faculty team brought in hadn't been a dangerous nutjob, hitting several kids and injuring them with his pitches. Even with the crazy guy, I can see how kids might enjoy the whole "evil principal is out to get us" vibe that the evil principal gives off. I do wish that the main character's friends had been given at least a little character development.

[Kristen Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gabby's pet monster Dwight really loves baseball, so when the annual Teachers vs. Students game comes around, he's excited to play. Which is great, because this year the Teachers have recruited some serious beefed up superstars. Lucky for the students to have a monster on the team, but at first it seems like he has no clue on how to play the game. Will Gabby and Dwight help the students defeat the teachers, or will they only make their team worse?


This graphic novel mixes reality with fantasy. Obviously, monsters do not exist in the real world, but it's fun for kids to see what it could be like if you had a pet monster that went to school with you. The graphics are great and the reading level is great for struggling readers. For kids there is a glossary of words in the graphic novel they may not know the meaning too. Also, there's also instructions of how students can draw their very own monster. For teacher and librarians, there is a great set of discussion questions and writing prompts that can be used with the book. Definitely another great graphic novel for kids.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Encouraging story, witty dialogue, and unique illustrations. Discussion questions, writing prompts, glossary, and how-to-draw-a-monster included in the back.