Under The Baseball Moon - Hardcover

Ritter, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399236236 ISBN 13: 9780399236235

Publisher: Philomel Books, 2006

Synopsis

Andy Ramos, a free-style skateboarding trumpeter, has dreams as big as a baseball moon. Born into a family of musicians, Andy wants to take his unique fusion of Latin jazz, rock, and hip-hop straight to the top. But when he crosses paths with Glory Martinez, a softball pitcher who has Olympian dreams of her own, the mysterious fusion of their athletic and musical skills changes everything. Or is that due to the elegant, but eerie man in black?

About this title

About the Author

John H. Ritter lives in San Diego, California.

Reviews

Starred Review. Grade 7-10–Skateboarding Andy Ramos, an aspiring teen trumpeter whose understanding parents and loving, late grandfather were musicians, forms a fusion music band (mixture of hip-hop, Latin jazz, and rock) called FuChar Skool with two like-minded friends. At the same time, he meets up with Glory Martinez, a former neighbor in San Diego's funky, honky-tonk Ocean Beach neighborhood who has just returned to the area. When he and Glory were in elementary school, she was a great embarrassment to him, but now she has matured and become a promising softball pitcher. Gradually Andy develops a close and somewhat codependent relationship with her–Glory needs Andy's trumpet riffs at her games to pitch effectively and he needs her to be present at his performances. Ritter adds to this mix three offbeat, strangely omniscient tricksters–a Croatian fortune-teller who speaks in riddles; a street Holy Jokester who speaks in jive rhymes; and Max Lucero, a mysterious, ominous figure who attempts to buy Andy's soul by guaranteeing his musical success at all costs. Sparkling with descriptions of music improvisation and softball action, and with expressive, idiomatic Spanglish dialogue, Andy's poetic first-person narrative superbly catches the weird uniqueness of Ocean Beach and briskly moves the somewhat overlong story to a satisfying conclusion.–Jack Forman, Mesa College Library, San Diego
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Gr. 7-10. In The Boy Who Saved Baseball (2003), Ritter seasoned the familiar Bad-News Bears formula with a splash of myth and a touch of otherworldliness. Here he uses the same spicing in a story that mixes softball and jazz--and the results are equally tasty. Andy Ramos is a San Diego teen with dreams of making it big in the music business, but even his head-turning trumpet playing won't be enough without a few breaks. Enter a mysterious street person who claims to be able to launch Andy's career--think Robert Johnson at the crossroads, making a deal with the devil--and suddenly those elusive breaks fall Andy's way. Then a childhood friend, Glory Martinez, a talented softball pitcher with Olympian dreams, returns to Andy's Ocean Beach (OB) neighborhood, and romantic sparks fly--until it appears that Andy's strange benefactor sees Gloria as a threat not a soul mate. Ritter pulls out all the stops in his myth-heavy plot, but what really makes the book soar is his sense of place: the laid-back, hippie-influenced, communal spirit of the OB permeates every scene, offering stark contrast to the coldly commercial world toward which Andy aspires. As in his earlier work, Ritter melds style to content beautifully, telling his story in a hip, street-smart argot that perfectly matches Andy's trumpet improvisations. Teen friendly, lots of fun, never preachy, but with plenty of thematic pizzazz. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Philomel Books
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0399236236
• ISBN 13: 9780399236235
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224