Over the Wall

Rating:
Summary: A Sixth Grade Reader from California
Review: Over the Wall by John H. Ritter is the best young/adult novelI've read in years. As a 6th grade teacher (and the parent of a twelve-year-old) I find it increasingly difficult to find quality books. Books about shape-shifting alien technology, slime creatures, and silly young sorcerers seem to dominate the market. [...] Why not read a book that entertains and teaches something at the same time. Using the metaphorical backdrop of baseball, Ritter's book does just that. He combines fast-paced entertainment with an insightful look at the history of the Vietnam conflict. It's time our children learned more about this troubling time in our history. Better than any other author I know, he captures wonderfully what it is like to be a child...the fears, the excitement, the angst of being an adolescent. By the time the book ends (all too quickly I might add) the main character has become your friend. Maybe we need to learn even more about him in future books. You don't have to love baseball to enjoy this book...you just have to love good books.

Rating:
Summary: Over the Wall
Review: Over the Wall by John H. Ritter is the best young/adult novelI've read in years. As a 6th grade teacher (and the parent of a twelve-year-old) I find it increasingly difficult to find quality books. Books about shape-shifting alien technology, slime creatures, and silly young sorcerers seem to dominate the market. [...] Why not read a book that entertains and teaches something at the same time. Using the metaphorical backdrop of baseball, Ritter's book does just that. He combines fast-paced entertainment with an insightful look at the history of the Vietnam conflict. It's time our children learned more about this troubling time in our history. Better than any other author I know, he captures wonderfully what it is like to be a child...the fears, the excitement, the angst of being an adolescent. By the time the book ends (all too quickly I might add) the main character has become your friend. Maybe we need to learn even more about him in future books. You don't have to love baseball to enjoy this book...you just have to love good books.

Rating:
Summary: A Sixth Grade Reader from California
Review: The opening lines of Chapter One in your novel, "People say time heals all wounds. . . .Time won't heal anything," can apply to many people's lives, as well as the history of mankind. In putting these lines into the story at an early point, you allow the reader to read their own life into the book, and therefore, understand the emotions of the characters better and more clearly.

I have also noticed the way the fathers in both of your novels, CHOOSING UP SIDES and OVER THE WALL seem to keep their families on their toes in some way or another. In CHOOSING UP SIDES, the father dominated the family by enforcing strict rules with old- fashioned punishments. Luke had to be very careful around him, so he was never quite comfortable. In OVER THE WALL, Tyler felt like his dad was making him "an outsider in his own home." He and his mother had to "talk easy," and "not do anything that might upset Dad." In fact, in both stories, Luke and Tyler seemed to have to hold in their true thoughts and feelings so as not to upset their fathers. Because the cause of this discomfort was different in CHOOSING UP SIDES, the resolution in OVER THE WALL will most likely also be different.

I can't wait to finish reading OVER THE WALL!

Rating:
Summary: over the wall
Review: this book was absolutely gr8. Not only was it about my favorite sport, baseball, but it was about going through peer pressure, which many people will experience later on in life.

Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Book for Teens OR Adults
Review: Wow--what a powerful story. I know that young adult literature has some of the best writing around these days, but the scope of this book really surprised me. It has so many different levels, and that is a mark of a truly talented author. This is not only a book about the love of baseball, it's about getting past the walls of anger than constrict us as individuals and as a nation. I defy someone to not identify in some way with 14-year-old Tyler, whether you are a baseball fan or not. The book is a bit lengthy, but like a 2-hour movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat, you'll hardly notice the pages turning. Nice job, Mr. Ritter.

Rating:
Summary: A Wanna Be Writer in San Diego
Review: Your unique writing style is wonderfully illustrated in Chapter Four. You use many writer's crafts effectively, such as using minor characters, like Tyler's family, to establish the largest parts of the plot.

Another skill you have used successfully in this chapter is to compare and contrast the traits of the cousins' parents. For example, their fathers are shown to be nothing but a "brick wall", because one doesn't communicate and the other isn't there to talk to. One of the mothers isn't there physically, while the other mother is there but seems to be unconscious.

Tyler strives to become a better baseball player to compensate for his parents' mental absence and to rekindle their interest in his life. Tyler's strenous quest is expressed in Chapter Three with foreshadowing. This occurs when he disputes the umpire's bad call when he knows he was safe.

All of these writer's craft techniques: foreshadow- ing, comparing and contrasting between characters, and having the minor characters take control of the greatest part of the plot, are brilliantly expressed in Chapter Four.