John H. Ritter

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Baseball novelist John H. Ritter (born 1951) grew up playing "one-on-one" hardball with his brothers in the rural hills of eastern San Diego County along the Mexican border.

[edit] Career

Out on the field, he would invent stories about the game-stories that, years later, would end up becoming award-winning novels for young adults. Ritter's debut, Choosing Up Sides, was the 1999 IRA Children's Book Award winner for Older Readers and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. He followed up with Over the Wall and The Boy Who Saved Baseball, which was named to the Texas Lone Star List and was selected by the New York Public Library as one of their "Books for the Teen Age."

[edit] Baseball Career during College

A former shortstop for the University of California, San Diego, Ritter is now a full-time writer who still enjoys playing the game in an amateur league. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Cheryl.