Tyler's temper is out of control. If he isn't careful, he'll blow his chances of making the All-Star team and being noticed by a scout. But Tyler's coach, a Vietnam War veteran, has seen anger destroy enough people. He knows that if Tyler is ever going to fulfill his dreams, he'll have to learn to fight his battles with his glove, his bat, and his love for the game. Not with his fists. But it all comes down to Tyler. Does he care enough about his future to work through the past?
"A grand slam." (The ALAN Review)
"An ambitious mark that predents a compelling, multilayered story." (School Library Journal)
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"The author tackles tough subjects relating to violence in sports, religious hypocrisy and the Vietnam War while creating layers of metaphors that neatly unfold as the story progresses," said PW. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-The wall in the title partly refers to the wall that the book's narrator, 13-year-old Tyler Waltern, wants to smack a baseball over. It also refers to other walls, such as the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, DC, and other more illusive barriers between people. As the novel opens, Tyler finds himself spending the summer with his aunt, uncle, and cousins. The attraction of New York City is the chance to play serious baseball over the summer while also escaping from his moody, troubled father, who has been a virtual recluse since the accidental death of Tyler's sister nine years earlier. The boy's own worst enemy, on the playing field and in life, is his own explosive temper and combative disposition. Helping Tyler through his problems are his firm but understanding coach and his wise-beyond-her-years younger cousin. This is a complex novel, with the events of the past haunting the lives of several of the major characters. By the end, Tyler has gained a level of self-awareness by unraveling some of the tangled stories in his family's past and understanding the intricacies lying beneath the surface of life. Sports are just a part of this ambitious work that presents a compelling, multilayered story. Todd Morning, Schaumburg Township Public Library, IL Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Novelist John H. Ritter (born October 31, 1951, in San Pedro, California) grew up in the summer-dry hills east of San Diego. "I grew up in a baseball family," says John. "But we were also a family of musicians and mathematicians, house painters and poets. My dad was a sports writer in Ashtabula, Ohio, who moved the family out west, just before I was born, to become Sports Editor for The San Diego Union."
Growing up in a sparse, mountainous region also helped stretch John's imagination. "Out in that country," he says, "there was a real sense of the spirits who walked the land in the centuries before. And being so cut off from other kids, I roamed the hills a lot, following hawks and eagles, climbing boulders, sitting in Indian caves. Rattlesnakes never bothered us much. But I felt the spirits everywhere. I think my mom, who was part Blackfoot Indian, had a lot to do with that."
When John was only four, however, his mother died of breast cancer, leaving his father to raise four small children on his own. John still recalls his mother and her songs. "One thing I remember about my mom is that she sang to us constantly, making up a song for each of her four children that fit our personalities perfectly. So from her, I got a sense of how to capture a person's spirit in a lyrical phrase."
Over time, his musical interests continued to grow and in high school, the social commentary of folksinger Bob Dylan inspired him to write his own songs, hoping to pursue a musical career. He was, however, a "wild student," he admits to English professor Chris Crowe in an interview for The ALAN Review, and was torn between his love of baseball and writing, calling himself both "a high achiever and a rabble rouser," noting, for example, that in 1969 he was voted Senior Class President and the Senior Class Clown. Teachers did, however, recognize his writing talent, although his work was so often read out loud in class that he also admits to growing complacent and somewhat lazy about having to improve his skills.
At the University of California, San Diego, John studied communications while playing for the UCSD baseball team, all-the-while continuing to write Dylan-style songs. But by his sophomore year, he recalls, "I was anxious to get on with my life. And for the vision I had in mind, college didn't have much to offer me. I knew I had to walk the streets, touch life, embrace life, gain experience." So like his literary heroes before him, i.e., Dylan, Jack Kerouac, and Mark Twain, John quit school, taking a job as a painter's apprentice, and set about traveling the country. He learned to live so cheaply that he could earn enough in three or four months to allow him to travel and write for the rest of the year. He did that for several years, until he married his wife, Cheryl, whom he had met in college, and they had a baby daughter. With a family to support, John needed to work nine months a year, painting houses, but the rest of his time went into writing, an artistic lifestyle he later spotlighted in his song-laden socio-political novel, Under the Baseball Moon.
In 1994, after publishing several short stories, John received the Judy Blume Award and a cash grant from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) for a novel in progress. In 1996, he submitted his manuscript through the Curtis Brown Agency to Philomel Books where it became the first book-length acquisition of junior editor, Michael Green. Since then, Green has risen to become Editorial Director and Publisher of Philomel Books and has edited all six of John's novels.
In 1999, John's first novel, Choosing Up Sides, won the International Reading Association Children's Book Award for Older Readers and was designated an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults. The hard-hitting work of historical fiction, set in Southern Ohio, was praised by Kirkus Reviews as, "No ordinary baseball book, this is a rare first novel." Since then, John has published five more award-winning books and numerous short stories.
In 2004, he received the Paterson Prize for Children's Literature for his third novel, The Boy Who Saved Baseball. Cited in People Magazine as a book to read, "Now that the youngsters have read Harry Potter...", The Boy Who Saved Baseball also garnered a rave review in Publishers Weekly, which called the book's prose "Enthralling...at times stunning," and that, "Ritter delivers a baseball tale of legendary dimension."
According to Vicki Sherbert, writing in The ALAN Review, "Ritter uses the game of baseball, the glory of music, and the power of the written word to illustrate how young people can overcome everyday, and not-so-everyday, challenges. Each book goes beyond the story of the game, beyond the story of the problem, right to the heart of Ritter's message: What is really valuable in life?"
Literary scholar and essayist, Patty Campbell, also notes that, "Another aspect of John H. Ritter's writing that merits high praise is the variety and inventiveness of his language. Richly evocative metaphors gather layers of meaning as the stories unfold, and the verbal style of each novel is neatly crafted to the place and time of its setting. Under the Baseball Moon dances to a hip hop beachtown beat; Over the Wall wisecracks with a California kid's take on New York; The Boy Who Saved Baseball draws on both Spanish and English to make up zingy new expressions, and Choosing Up Sides savors the naiveté of the historic Appalachian dialect of southern Ohio. His settings, too, are vividly distinct and vary from the Hispanic/Anglo blend of his own Southern California hill communities to the "small town" neighborhoods of present day New York; from the eclectic oceanfront culture of the Pacific beach towns to the church-centered villages on the banks of the Ohio River during Prohibition."
John's fifth novel, The Desperado Who Stole Baseball, was a 2009 Jr. Library Guild selection and takes an historical look at the roots of racism in the Major Leagues. Set in the Wild West of the 1880s and written in the manner of a tall tale, Desperado is a prequel to The Boy Who Saved Baseball.
And coming soon (April 12, 2012) is John's sixth novel, Fenway Fever, also a Junior Library Guild selection and a book his publisher describes as "another magical novel that celebrates teamwork--and the innate power to heal that even the least among us is born with." New York Times bestselling author Peter Abrahams called Fenway Fever, "A funny, exciting, original, and heartwarming novel."
"In all of these wonderful novels," writes Patty Campbell, "John H. Ritter steps up to the plate and hits a home run for teen reading with books that are fun to read, fun to discuss, and important in the difficult process of growing up to be an ethical human being."
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.
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By far, the similes with the most important roles in OVER THE WALL are the many walls. Tyler has many problems, but the main one is his father. In the first chapter, Tyler said, "It was like he was facing a big brick wall. . .and he couldn't see a thing." Then, in the second chapter, Tyler wants to hit a baseball "over the wall". If I took that at face value, I would think that all he wants is to do well in baseball, but there is a deeper meaning. As Tyler makes it clear, baseball is part of him. If he could get a baseball over the wall his dad is facing, it would be like reaching out to him, and hey, maybe the ball would even plonk him on the head and shake him out of the trance he's in. Also, the expression "Get over it" means to let it go, or move on and start fresh. If Tyler's dad were to "get over" that wall, he would be tired of pushing his family away from him, and he could refill that empty shell of his that Alyssa once filled. It is important that he sees what he is doing to his family so he can realize that he is losing them, in addition to Alyssa.
This book is making me think.
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5.0 out of 5 starsReview of the tale of tyler, May 18, 2005
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Over the Wall (Paperback)
The book is about a13 year old boy named Tyler. He lives in California but in the summer he goes to New York to play baseball. When he is there he loses his temper a lot, one day the coach pulled him aside and told him to cut it out, stop being so mad! Then he went home and just froze and decideed that since they (his family) were going to washington monument to pay thier respects to thier family he would read a book on the vitetnam war.He decides to make a memorial for the Vietnamese people that died, and then it is all star day will he make the team or will tyler strike out on the opportunity to???
the main characters are Tyler, cousin Breena, Louie, his coach (coach) Trioli, his mom and dad, his uncle Phil,his aunt, and his dead sister Alyssa.
On a scale of 1-10 I would rate this book a ten because some of the stuff in this book I can relate to! I would recommend this book to boys and girls ages 9-16 because it really sounds like a book for that age group, and people below that age group probably wouldn't get it! The genre of the book is sports fiction. You should read this book, because it really explains a lot about peoples emotions, and it just grabs your attention from the beginning! If I could read this book again I would, because I am a huge baseball fan, If I knew I had to walk away from the game I would flip out like tyler did when the coach kicked him off the team!!! I mean I Eat sleep and live for baseball!
* Orono, Me 12
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