Desperado Who Stole Baseball

Baseball novelist John H. Ritter grew up in a baseball family. "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." After high school, John attended the University of California at San Diego, where he met his wife, Cheryl, now an elementary school teacher. Like their grown daughter, Jolie, who runs her own espresso cafe, John has always preferred the self-employed life, having been a custom painting contractor for 25 years. "Even so," he says, "I always 'booked' my calendar with time to write." In 1994, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators honored him with the Judy Blume Award for a novel in progress. Three years later, upon the sale of his first book, to Penguin Putnam, he retired from house painting and realized his dream of becoming a full-time writer. Now, he is the author of six books for young readers: Over the Wall, Choosing Sides, Under the Baseball Moon, The Boy Who Saved Baseball, The Desperado Who Stole Baseball, and Fenway Fever.John H. Ritter lives in Koloa, Hawaii. Learn more about him at johnhritter.com.