Over the Wall (RPM)

Chris Fabry is a master of extending story lines without dragging them out. Great writers like Chris don't just write the same story 15 times, they develop characters and have them grow and mature. We get to know the characters to the point where we can almost anticipate their reactions to the situations in which they find themselves. Better yet, we're right there with them. I intended to give the kids in my extended family my copies of the first two RPM books but I ended up reading them both first. And I had a good time doing so. The first NASCAR-based volume had a quicker pace. Over the Wall brought more depth to the characters and greater definition of their aspirations and obstacles in their paths, as you would expect from any writer with Chris Fabry's talent and experience. I admire Fabry for his ability to create realistic conflicts that his characters face and resolve. The characters become our friends -- or mutual enemies -- and the people we would like to become or "should have" become. These books -- free of dependence on sex, drugs, and rock and roll -- will keep the young people in your life on the path to a lifetime of reading, and using that quickly vanishing commodity: imagination. My only complaint is that as I turned a page to begin the next chapter all I saw was Fabry's smiling face! The book halted in mid-step for all of those involved. Now comes the wait for the next volume. And the next, probably. But, if the first two are any indication, the wait will be worth it. I'm looking forward to hearing from my new friends.