Over the Wall

Tyler's dreams of joining the All-Star baseball team are threatened by his uncontrollable temper, and it is up to his coach to teach him that his battles can be won in other ways than by fighting. By the author of Choosing Up Sides.

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.

Ritter (Choosing Up Sides) again draws parallels between baseball and social issues as he explores the struggles of a 13-year-old boy on and off the field. There are many "walls" in Tyler's life: the outfield wall he dreams of clearing with a hard hit; the Vietnam monument bearing the name of his grandfather; and the invisible barrier Tyler's father has built around himself since the accidental death of Tyler's older sister nine years earlier. Spending the summer in New York City with his cousins, Tyler is determined to make an all-star baseball team. But Tyler's talent doesn't impress his coaches as much as his explosive temper does, and he is told to "shape up or ship out." Led by a tough but sensitive coach, a Vietnam vet, and by his pretty eighth-grader cousin, trained in "peer arbitration" at her private school, Tyler learns to control his anger and understand his so-called enemies. 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. Although Ritter stacks the deck a little obviously, his powerful lesson in compassion will likely reverberate for readers. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ten years after his father accidentally runs over and kills his baby sister, 14-year-old Tyler leaves his shattered family to live with relatives in New York and play on a baseball league in Central Park. Although he has athletic talent and passion enough to make the all-stars, he's a tempest whose flare-ups undermine his every success. His coach, a Vietnam veteran who knows the destructive effects of unchecked anger, attempts to help Tyler, but the boy soon realizes that only he can heal the wounds that have darkened his opinion of the world. Early in the novel Tyler is overwhelmed by bitterness, but thanks to guidance from his coach, he begins to understand himself and reconnect with his guilt-burdened father. Although sports fiction fans will find only occasional play-by-play action in this novel, they will be more than compensated by a fully fleshed-out story about compassion and absolution. Roger Leslie