Over the Wall

Rating:
Summary: Over the Wall by John H. Ritter
Review: "Over the Wall" by John H. Ritter was one of the greatest books I have ever read. It is about a boy named Tyler who has many conflicts with his family and his baseball team that he plays for. He has a mom and dad that he lives with in California, but the book takes place in New York where he visits his cousin Louie. He joins a baseball team there. Tyler has a very short temper which gets him in trouble quite a lot. At the end of the book he cleans up and tries out for the league All-Stars. Will he make them? Read the book to find out.

Rating:
Summary: Baseball As A Metaphor
Review: As much about the often painful ambiguities of early teenage years as about the inevitably painful consequences to its people of a nation at war--particularly one as divisive and engorged with confusion as our Vietnam "conflict"--, OVER THE WALL is a heartfelt, carefully and beautifully crafted work of fiction. It's as likely to challenge the parent as the child. The parent will be humbled by the realization that his/her conflicts about Vietnam are not significantly different in nature than his/her child's, once that child begins to learn a little about the war. Indeed, one virtue of a novel geared toward "young adults" such as OVER THE WALL is that the core conflicts can often be presented by a skilled writer such as Ritter in a storyline and manner less encumbered by peripheral issues than an adult novel likely must be. By the absence of such peripheral elements, the adult reader has a surprising opportunity to recognize his pretenses, his defenses, his evasions--his willful avoidance of truths about the issues embodied by the novel which are rife with apparently conflicting meanings. The protagonist, Tyler Walthern, simultaneously learns to deal with his baseball teammates and their adult coaches and managers, his family, and the society which is both a cause and an effect of the conflicts--certainly including the war in Vietnam--with which we live. Life is indeed an interconnected whole, and Tyler, as he wrestles with the sport he loves and its participants, becomes better able to clearly see what sort of family member and, yes, human being, he wants to be. John Ritter creates characters who, by character and personality, each partially embodies the conflicts arising from Vietnam. Yet each carries a different weight (or element) of the emotional spectrum of responses to that conflict. Contrast, for example, the cowboy go-gettum enthusiasm of cousin Louie; the measured-and-duly-digested response of Coach Trioli (a Vietnam vet); and Tylers curious, puzzled, touched, touching, and creative response to "The Wall" in Washington, DC. Ritter's book evinces hope in what many Americans in their ennui sometimes may well doubt--that a young teenager can actually learn from his/her experience and mature in the midst of it, that s/he can transcend ineffective and foolish behavior and gather his feet under him. Ritter makes this growth believable with characters who realistically interact with and even learn from each other. His characterization and plotting is as deft in appropriately portraying the first stirrings of puppy love, as they are in vividly depicting the conflicts of a group of 13 year-old boys--or a nation--at war with itself.

Rating:
Summary: Over the top
Review: John Ritter aims high with his latest novel, which is more than can be said for most young adult fiction. He tries to meld baseball and coming of age, the mourning of war dead and a family melodrama, tragedy and triumph. He only sometimes succeeds. This book could have profited from a good editor. There's such a thing as trying to do too much in a novel, and by aiming at so many fences, Ritter hits precious few of them on the button. Case in point: he sets up a terrible family tragedy in the first few pages, one that should haunt our young protagonist through his coming of age. And yet, the author never comes back around to that which he has set up. Weird. For another thing, this is a 300 page book that could have been 200. Ritter can write, but needs to be more focused in his next effort.

Rating:
Summary: over the wall
Review: John Ritter's second novel is an intricate web of baseball, war, and coming of age. Ritter's 14 year old hero, Tyler, almost lets anger destroy his sport. Through his development of self-control, he is able to come to terms with his family and with his country's involvement in the Viet Nam War. The story is seamlessly woven together with humor and insight into the development of adolescents. There are positive adult role models who help Tyler along the way, and even when Tyler does not realize it, the reader will. By the end we care about this young man and appreciate his reflection and growth. In this way, Tyler, too, becomes a role model for the many young readers who will be engaged by this novel. Older readers will appreciate the historical connections and younger readers will enjoy the fast paced story line. This is a great book for a read-aloud and contains enough discussion of the Viet Nam War era to make it a must for an interdisciplinary classroom.

I am eagerly anticipating Ritter's third book and welcome him to the ranks of exceptional writers for young adults.

Rating:
Summary: Ritter hits one Over the Wall
Review: John Ritter's second novel is an intricate web of baseball, war, and coming of age. Ritter's 14 year old hero, Tyler, almost lets anger destroy his sport. Through his development of self-control, he is able to come to terms with his family and with his country's involvement in the Viet Nam War. The story is seamlessly woven together with humor and insight into the development of adolescents. There are positive adult role models who help Tyler along the way, and even when Tyler does not realize it, the reader will. By the end we care about this young man and appreciate his reflection and growth. In this way, Tyler, too, becomes a role model for the many young readers who will be engaged by this novel. Older readers will appreciate the historical connections and younger readers will enjoy the fast paced story line. This is a great book for a read-aloud and contains enough discussion of the Viet Nam War era to make it a must for an interdisciplinary classroom.

I am eagerly anticipating Ritter's third book and welcome him to the ranks of exceptional writers for young adults.

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: 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.