43 pages • 1 hour read
Dan GutmanHonus and Me
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1997A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Introduction-Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Introduction Summary
The novel opens with a brief note from the protagonist, Joe Stoshack. Joe recalls the first time he touched a baseball card, describing a strange tingling sensation, like static electricity. He was around five years old and noticed that he only got this sensation from baseball cards, not football or basketball ones. Joe always believed there was something magical about them, and later, something happened that confirmed this feeling.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Playing Hardball”
Joe is struggling during a baseball game. He is mocked by a player on the other team for his “elephant ears.” The remark hurts him and distracts him. Joe hasn’t managed to hit the ball out of the infield all season, despite being physically strong. He has a broad chest and muscular arms, stronger than any other seventh-grader he’s seen. However, he’s short for a 12-year-old, and his stocky build makes him self-conscious. Joe admits: “I’m actually a pretty good ballplayer. But those insults really get to me” (11). Last time, someone said his legs looked like a pair of parentheses.
Joe swings with determination, but he strikes out for the third time that game. Overwhelmed by embarrassment, he wants to disappear as the opposing team cheers and his own teammates snicker.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Throwing Money in the Garbage”
Joe is at home when his mother arrives from work. She asks how the game went, and he admits it was a bad day—he struck out three times. His mother hugs him and reassures him. She sits down, exhausted from her long shift as a nurse. When Joe asks if they can go out to eat, his mother explains that they are on a tight budget. Joe’s family isn’t poor, but they aren’t wealthy either. Things have been especially difficult since his parents’ divorce two years ago. His father lives nearby in an apartment and visits occasionally. Joe often feels that if his parents had had more money, their marriage might have survived. His mother disagrees, telling him: “Money doesn’t make you happy” (13). However, Joe reflects: “But how would she know? She never had any” (13).
To help out, Joe does odd jobs, such as yard work, raking leaves, and shoveling snow. He gives most of the money he earns to his mom, but saves some for baseball cards. His dad gave him his first baseball card collection when he was about seven, sparking Joe’s passion. Joe quickly put together a full set of shortstops, which was always his position. His mom disapproves of his hobby, saying buying cards is like throwing money in the garbage, but Joe enjoys it too much to stop.
Joe’s mom tells him that their neighbor, Miss Amanda Young, needs help cleaning out her attic and will pay him five dollars. Joe recalls that Miss Young is an elderly woman who never leaves her house. He remembers rumors: “I’ve heard kids say that Amanda Young is a witch, and that she murdered some kid once. Kids always make up stories like that. I think she’s just a lonely old lady. I feel a little sorry for her” (14). He agrees to help her, hoping to earn enough for a new set of cards.
Chapter 3 Summary: “A Piece of Cardboard”
The next day, Joe goes to Miss Young’s house. From the outside, the house looks dilapidated, and Joe realizes that Miss Young is in a worse financial state than his family. Inside, the house is full of antiques. As they chat, Miss Young shares that she was once a baseball fan and that the baseball bat was invented here in Louisville by a man named Peter Browning. She then shows Joe an old, torn photo of a baseball player with “Louisville” written across his chest. Miss Young explains that she was supposed to keep this half of the photo until they could reunite, but the man never returned. She tells Joe to throw the photo away along with the rest of the junk in the attic. Joe, however, thinks to himself: “I’m a collector. I never throw anything away” (17). He slips the photo into his backpack, wondering why it upset Miss Young so much.
Miss Young leads Joe upstairs to the attic, which is dark, dirty, and filled with discarded items. She asks him to clear out everything and place the rubble on the street for the garbage men to collect. After a couple of hours of work, Joe has nearly finished the task. He drops a box, and a single piece of cardboard flutters to the floor. Joe realizes it is a baseball card.
Chapter 4 Summary: “All My Problems Are Solved”
The baseball card Joe finds has the same man’s face as the one in the photo Miss Young showed him. Joe gasps as he examines the card: the man is young, with short brown hair and a solemn expression. The card reads “WAGNER, PITTSBURG” across the bottom border—there is no H. Joe’s heart races and the tingling sensation is all over him. He realizes he’s holding a T-206 Honus Wagner card—the most valuable baseball card in the world.
These early baseball cards were produced by tobacco companies and included in their products. All players, except Honus Wagner, agreed to be featured on the cards. Wagner, the star shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, refused because of his opposition to cigarette smoking; he didn’t want his name associated with tobacco. As a result, he forced the American Tobacco Company to withdraw his card, but by then, some cards had already been distributed. Only about 40 of these cards are known to exist today, which is why the Honus Wagner card is so valuable. Joe reflects: “I just found No. 41, and it was mint. Nobody had touched it in over eighty years” (20).
Joe knows that the card is worth thousands of dollars. He slips it into his backpack and leaves Miss Young’s house. She gives him 10 dollars instead of the agreed five and thanks him. Joe heads out for a bike ride, feeling “happiness [wash] over [his] body” (21). However, he soon begins to feel guilty. He realizes that the baseball card doesn’t truly belong to him—it was Miss Young’s. He rationalizes the situation, convincing himself that she told him to throw the items away, and that she won’t live much longer. Still, deep down, Joe knows the right thing to do is to return the card to Miss Young.
Chapter 5 Summary: “I’ll Give You $1,000 Cash. Right Now.”
Joe takes the Honus Wagner card to Birdie’s Home Run Heaven, a local shop owned by a man famous for his brief career as a professional wrestler. Birdie was known as a “bad guy” in the ring, and the crowd would chant “Bye Bye Birdie” when he was defeated (23). Joe never really liked Birdie, but he knows Birdie will be able to authenticate the card for him.
Birdie examines it carefully, and his jaw drops when he realizes what Joe has brought him. He asks where Joe found the card, but Joe doesn’t want to tell him. Birdie takes a closer look and tells Joe that the card is not a Honus Wagner, but a Heinie Wagner, another player from the same set. Heinie Wagner played for the Boston Red Sox, not the Pittsburgh Pirates. Birdie offers Joe 10 dollars for the card, and Joe is crushed. He had already envisioned how he would spend the thousands of dollars he would get from the card.
As Joe looks Birdie in the eye, he notices that Birdie is sweating, which raises suspicions. Suddenly, Joe realizes that Birdie is lying to him. The card clearly features “PITTSBURG” across the chest, and the only Wagner who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates during that era was the legendary Honus Wagner. Joe leaves the store, determined not to sell the card to Birdie. As he heads out, a teenager who works at Home Run Heaven follows him outside. He tells Joe that he should keep the card in a safe place: “That’s the most valuable piece of cardboard in the world, and a lot of people would like to have it” (24).
Introduction-Chapter 5 Analysis
The narrative is told from Joe’s point of view, which gives the story a sense of intimacy. The novel portrays him as an underdog and plants the seeds for his emotional growth. From the very beginning, Joe is depicted as someone who doesn’t fit in. He is teased by his classmates, particularly for his “elephant ears,” and for his inability to hit the ball during baseball games. He has a short, stocky build, which contributes to his struggles with self-esteem. As part of his journey, Joe will move away from self-consciousness toward self-acceptance.
Financial strain shapes Joe’s sense of responsibility. His mom works long hours as a nurse, and while they aren’t poor, they also aren’t wealthy. Joe says: “I wouldn’t say we were poor, but I sure wouldn’t say we were rich either. We never had a lot of money, but things got really tough after my parents split up two years ago” (13). Joe tries to help out by taking on odd jobs, like yard work and shoveling snow. This suggests that he is both resilient and determined. His struggles with his self-esteem and his desire for a better life are key elements that drive the narrative forward. In the beginning, Joe pines for material wealth, thinking it will fix his family and parents’ relationship. As the novel progresses, Joe will learn that money can’t fix things and that other elements—such as love and the belief in oneself—are more important.
The book explores The Role of Sports in Shaping Personal and Societal Identity. For Joe, baseball is a way to cope with the challenges in his life. His obsession with baseball comes to the fore in these chapters. Even though he isn’t a good baseball player, Joe spends some of the money he earns on baseball cards. His mom doesn’t understand the value of the hobby. She views the cards as a waste of money, but for Joe, they are a source of joy and meaning. They are magical, a feeling that becomes literalized in the book. When Joe touches the cards, he doesn’t just feel happy; he literally tingles: “I always thought there was something—oh, magical—about them” (9). This foreshadows the fantastical elements of the story, and how the cards will act as a portal back and forth through time.
Miss Young’s house introduces an air of mystery and intrigue to the novel. Her home is described as “one of those historical houses some famous guy lived in and has been preserved just the way he left it when he died. It was filled with antiques […] . The walls were covered with hats and dried flowers and old guns” (16). The attic, where Joe spends time cleaning, is dark and filthy, evoking a sense of mystery. In novels, attics are often places that hide secrets and magic. Honus and Me follows in the tradition of books like the Magic Attic Club series by Sheri Cooper Sinykin, The Woman Hidden in the Attic by Gail L. Dull, and Secrets in the Attic by C. C. Warren.
Miss Young is portrayed as an enigmatic figure. Something unusual seems to be happening in her house. Miss Young is believed by some of the neighborhood kids to be a witch, which evokes a sense of suspense surrounding her character. The Honus Wagner card marks a turning point in the story. It is an item of great value, and Joe’s initial excitement turns into a moral dilemma. This is the beginning of Joe’s internal conflict, as he wrestles with the decision of whether to keep the card or return it to Miss Young. Keeping the card represents selfishness and a superficial valuing of material wealth, while returning it represents The Importance of Honesty and Integrity. When the teenager at Home Run Heaven tells Joe that the card is the “most valuable piece of cardboard in the world” (24), Joe begins to realize the responsibility that comes with possessing something so precious.
Joe’s voice 12-year-old voice is candid. His thoughts are simple, but they carry deeper meaning. For example, when his mom says, “money doesn’t make you happy,” Joe reflects: “But how would she know? She never had any” (13). This highlights Joe’s way of thinking and the underlying tension in his character. His mom believes that money doesn’t lead to happiness, but Joe feels differently because of their financial struggles. Joe yearns for more than just happiness—he longs for financial security.
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