Archive: Around Town

This week Lansing students were treated to a visit by author John H. Ritter, who is known for his books for young adults that mix baseball with moral topics.  Ritter is the third author that former Rochester librarian Susan Rosenkoetter has brought to Lansing in honor of her other, Dorothy Davis Rosenkoetter, who worked at Lansing schools for 18 years.  "This year has been our biggest project ever," Rosenkoetter said Tuesday morning.  "His two favorite things are baseball and music.  He's brought a guitar.  He's going to be talking about his books, talking about writing, answering questions, and playing on the guitar.  I'm really thrilled because the middle school has a wonderful Jazz band that played as the kids filed in."


Ritter addressed the 5th and 6th grades Tuesday morning, and 7th and 8th graders in the afternoon.  He was scheduled for book signing and lunch, then on Wednesday he was at the High School in the morning and the Elementary School in the afternoon.  Thursday Ritter conducted writer's workshops at each of the three schools.  English teachers at each school chose students to participate.  "Kids are going to bring some of their writing," Rosenkoetter said.  "He's going to critique it and talk about what goes into being a writer."

Ritter's titles include 'The Boy Who Saved Baseball,' a story about a boy who fights a developer encroaching on a small town in rural California.  An apple rancher wants to sell his land to developers, but agrees to let the decision ride on the result of a baseball game between local kids and kids going to a summer camp nearby.  'Over The Wall' deals with the Vietnam war and the memorial in Washington, D.C.

'Under the Baseball Moon' blends baseball with music in a story about a boy whose grandfather is a successful musician, but passes away before he can impart the secret to success.  The book deals with the difference between perceived success and real happiness.  'Choosing Up Sides' deals with prejudice, as a left handed boy whose father views left handedness as a mark of the devil comes to terms with the fact that he is a natural, powerful pitcher.

6th grader Merissa Soprano introduced Ritter in the assemblies Tuesday before he took the stage.  Ritter offered writing tips as he talked about his books Tuesday morning.  "The first chapter of a novel is the last chapter in disguise," he told the students.  If you get to the end of a good book and upi gp back to the first chapter, you will see that the author put all kinds of clues in there.  All kinds of foreshadowing."

After reading an excerpt from 'Choosing Up Sides' he explained what he meant by the story.  "A theme running though all my books is that moment in life when you make a decision," Ritter said.  "When you have to face up to a decision, when you have to decide between two worlds, between two friends, a rock and a hard place.  You have to make a tough decision and then live with the consequences."

"Mrs. Rosenkoetter is wonderful," says Middle School Principal Jamie Thomas.  "She is very generous.  She loves doing things for the Middle School.  The has just been a gift to us in terms of supporting teachers, and supporting events like this special visit from Mr. Ritter.  It's a wonderful thing that she is willing to help us out that way."

In addition to bringing authors to Lansing at her own expense, Rosenkoetter also brings Lansing teachers to writers conferences so they can meet and be exposed to working authors.  Recently she has she has taken Lansing teachers to Atlanta, Denver, Baltimore and San Francisco, where they met such luminaries as Judy Blume and Lois Lowry and saw presentations by Julie Andrews, Dave Barry and many popular authors of books for young adults. Some of the teachers who have gone on these trips are June Martin, Cathy Mosely, Denise Kaminsky, Lisa Peter, Jim Bedore, Judy Hinterliter and Brenda Meade.

Rosenkoetter, a retired librarian from the Rochester Library System, is known around Lansing as "Miss Susan" as she shares her love of reading with the community's children. She starts with the Kindergarten children, making sure all their classes get to visit the library and during this visit the children get their first library card. She follows up with the older grades as the children progress through school.   She has also spearheaded the Lansing Library Summer Reading Program for the past several years.

This week she made a special effort to show Ritter a good time during his visit.  "We're taking him around to show him some of the waterfalls," Rosenkoetter said Tuesday.  "We're having a Cinco de Mayo dinner for him and teachers at the Federal House.  He is also very interested in Mark Twain, and did not realize that Mark Twain's studio is in Elmira.  We're going to take him there and we're also going to take him to the cemetery where Mark Twain is buried."

----
v4i18