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Black Lagoon Adventures #10
The Little League Team from the Black Lagoon
The next trade release from the hugely popular book club series by Mike Thaler and Jared Lee. These fun-filled chapter books mix school, monsters, and common kid problems with hilarious results. Baseball fever is catching, but Hubie just feels sick!Everyone is going batty because baseball tryouts are coming up. Too bad, last season, the only hit Hubie got was in the head when he missed catching the ball. Will Hubie knock one out of the park and make the team or will it be another strikeout?
64 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2007
About the author
Mike Thaler
294 books118 followersMike Thaler, born in Los Angeles, started his professional career drawing cartoons for adults. A children's book editor saw one of his cartoon stories in a national magazine and encouraged Mike to try writing for children. His first attempt met with success, and "The Magic Boy" was published in 1961.
Mike has produced over 220 published books and is known as “America’s Riddle King.” He has also been called “The Court Jester of Children’s Literature.”
Mike Thaler lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Patty. He gladly welcomes all invitations to do church and school programs, and other book events.
Mike travels each year throughout the world helping children and teachers create their own stories, riddles, and books. He writes and teaches with creativity, inspiring his audiences with a love of language.
--from the author's website
Mike has produced over 220 published books and is known as “America’s Riddle King.” He has also been called “The Court Jester of Children’s Literature.”
Mike Thaler lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Patty. He gladly welcomes all invitations to do church and school programs, and other book events.
Mike travels each year throughout the world helping children and teachers create their own stories, riddles, and books. He writes and teaches with creativity, inspiring his audiences with a love of language.
--from the author's website
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 7, 2023
This week in my children’s literature class we were to read a contemporary realistic fiction. I chose The Baseball Team from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler, illustrated by Jared Lee. In the next adventure of Hubie, he wants to make the baseball team again. Baseball is all he can think of – at home, school, and even in his dreams. With a previous year where he didn’t do the best, he hopes to have a great season. But first, he needs a new glove. With a trip to the store, he finds a new glove for the price of mowing the lawn for the whole year. Will this new glove help him achieve his goal? Hubie is relatable to children of all ages because he is working hard at something he enjoys. He doesn’t give up just because he had a rough year previously and wants to get better. He thinks of ways he can do this – new glove and practice.
At first, I noticed that some of the titles of the chapters were titles to songs, so I checked to see if they all were. They are not, but they are various plays on words with a baseball theme. Throughout the book there are great analogies and facts about baseball – his old glove being prehistoric like a dinosaur, the name he gives his new glove, the center of the glove is the pocket, who the founder of baseball is (even if Hubie uses this for a play on words moment) and many more. One thing that the illustrator did on some of the pages was add trivia questions with a later page number with the answer. It’s a fun way to get the reader to see if they know any baseball trivia and test their knowledge while learning something new. The book itself seems like a mixture of chapter book and graphic novel. Some of the illustrations add to the story by repeating parts of the story line or depicting events.
Children of all ages, both boys and girls, will enjoy and relate to this book. From friendships to having something consume their thinking in every aspect, playing with/on a team with friends, wanting to be a part of something bigger, wanting to achieve their goals, and so much more. This book helps highlight the fact that you should never give up on the goals you want to achieve. When you put your mind to something, you can do anything.
In a classroom setting, students could focus on how the drawings play a part in the story itself – why are certain parts added while other parts are not. Older students could focus on finding all the double meanings while reading the story and looking at the illustrations – i.e., pitcher’s mound and then the drawing of a pitcher on a mound. It could also be used in comparison to learn more about the history of baseball.
At first, I noticed that some of the titles of the chapters were titles to songs, so I checked to see if they all were. They are not, but they are various plays on words with a baseball theme. Throughout the book there are great analogies and facts about baseball – his old glove being prehistoric like a dinosaur, the name he gives his new glove, the center of the glove is the pocket, who the founder of baseball is (even if Hubie uses this for a play on words moment) and many more. One thing that the illustrator did on some of the pages was add trivia questions with a later page number with the answer. It’s a fun way to get the reader to see if they know any baseball trivia and test their knowledge while learning something new. The book itself seems like a mixture of chapter book and graphic novel. Some of the illustrations add to the story by repeating parts of the story line or depicting events.
Children of all ages, both boys and girls, will enjoy and relate to this book. From friendships to having something consume their thinking in every aspect, playing with/on a team with friends, wanting to be a part of something bigger, wanting to achieve their goals, and so much more. This book helps highlight the fact that you should never give up on the goals you want to achieve. When you put your mind to something, you can do anything.
In a classroom setting, students could focus on how the drawings play a part in the story itself – why are certain parts added while other parts are not. Older students could focus on finding all the double meanings while reading the story and looking at the illustrations – i.e., pitcher’s mound and then the drawing of a pitcher on a mound. It could also be used in comparison to learn more about the history of baseball.
September 21, 2025
This book is very relatable to a typical student being nervous/stressed about an event coming up. In the story the little boy is trying out for his schools baseball team. He keeps having nightmares and terrifying thoughts about it. It is a great story with great detailed pictures and fun things to look at all around the pages. An activity I would do with this book is have students draw and explain an event which they were stressed about. It could be trying out for a team or first day of school or lots of other things!
November 23, 2019
Hubie is excited for baseball season to start. Hubie and his friends were on a losing team the year before. Hubie convinces his mom to buy him a new baseball glove. Hubie finally has his new glove and will not take it off. He wears it to school the next day. All of his friends and students in his class are excited for baseball tryouts that are coming up. Hubie is worried that he is not going to do good. However, tryouts go well for everyone. Hubie is a star player and has improved at baseball.
March 17, 2018
Tryouts for little league baseball is on Saturday, but after last season's dismal performance Hubie's having second thoughts about trying out. But with a new glove that Hubie names "grabber" signed by some guy named Wilson that he's never heard of before, Hubie not only makes the team, but has a much better season than he did last year.
January 29, 2017
I didn't like this one as much as I like the other books in the series that I've read.
October 12, 2014
Sat down and read this with my third grader in one sitting. She loves the Black Lagoon series. This is appropriate for that age group and has lots of little "asides" that make it a learning experience about baseball. Took an hour for us to get through.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews