| Walter Dean Myers has written over fifty books,
which have received numerous awards, including two Newbery Honors, five
Coretta Scott King Awards, and four Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors.
Walter Dean Myers
b. August 12, 1937
 "I am a product of Harlem and of the values, color, toughness, and caring
that I found there as a child. I learned my flat jump shot in the church
basement and got my first kiss during recess at Bible school. I played the
endless street games kids played in the pre-television days and paid enough
attention to candy and junk food to dutifully alarm my mother.
"From my foster parents, the Deans, I received the love that was
ultimately to strengthen me, even when I had forgotten its source. It
was my foster mother, a half Indian-half German woman, who taught me to
read, though she herself was barely literate."I had a speech
difficulty but didn't view it as anything special. It wasn't necessary
for me to be much of a social creature once I discovered books. Books
took me, not so much to foreign lands and fanciful adventures, but to a
place within myself that I have been constantly exploring ever since.
"The George Bruce Branch of the Public Library was my most treasured place. I
couldn't believe my luck in discovering that what I enjoyed most—reading—was
free. And I was tough enough to carry the books home through the streets without
too many incidents.
"At sixteen it seemed a good idea to leave school, and so I did. On my
seventeenth birthday I joined the army. After the army there were jobs-some
good, some bad, few worth mentioning. Leaving school seemed less like a good
idea.
|
Walter Dean Myers has
written many highly acclaimed books for children and young adults, including
Angel to Angel, Glorious Angels, Brown Angels, and the Newbery Honor book,
Scorpions. He received the
Coretta Scott King Award
for Now is Your Time! The African-American Struggle for Freedom, and the
1994 Margaret E. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award given by the American
Library Association. He lives in Jersey City, NJ. |
"Writing for me has been many things. It was a way to overcome the hindrance
of speech problems as I tried to reach out to the world. It was a way of
establishing my humanity in a world that often ignores the humanity of those in
less favored positions. It was a way to make a few extra dollars when they were
badly needed.
"What I want to do with the writing keeps changing, too. Perhaps I just get
clearer in what it is I am doing. I'm sure that after I'm dead someone will lay
it all out nicely. I'd hate to see what kind of biography my cat, Askia, would
write about me. Probably something like, "Walter Dean Myers had enormous feet,
didn't feed me on time, and often sat in my favorite chair." At any rate, what I
think I'm doing now is rediscovering the innocence of children that I once took
for granted. I cannot relive it or reclaim it, but I can expose it and celebrate
it in the books I write. I really like people—I mean, I really like people—and
children are some of the best people I know.
"I've always felt it a little pretentious to write about yourself, but it's
not too bad if you don't write too much."
|
Lockdown
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level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Amistad (February 2, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061214809
ISBN-13: 978-0061214806 |
|
Muhammad Ali: The
People's Champion
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Amazon
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Collins (December 29, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060291311
ISBN-13: 978-0060291310 |
|  Looking
Like Me
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Amazon
Christopher Myers (Illustrator)
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Library Binding: 32 pages
Publisher: Egmont USA (October 13, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 160684041X
ISBN-13: 978-1606840412 |
|
 Riot
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level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Egmont USA (September 22, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1606840002
ISBN-13: 978-1606840009
Egmont USA has announced
that Walter Dean Myers, winner of two Newbery Honors and five
Coretta Scott King Awards, will have two books on the company's Fall
2009 launch list. |
|
New York Draft
Riot
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level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 128 pages
Publisher: Holiday House (July 15, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0823420116
ISBN-13: 978-0823420117 |
 Sunrise Over Fallujah
Click to order via
Amazon Reading level: Ages
9-12
Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Press; Reprint edition (April 15, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0439916259
ISBN-13: 978-0439916257
Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 0.8 inches Robin "Birdy"
Perry, a new army recruit from Harlem, isn't quite sure why he joined the
army, but he's sure where he's headed: Iraq. Birdy and the others in the
Civilian Affairs Battalion are supposed to help secure and stabilize the
country and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. Officially, the
code name for their maneuvers is Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the young men
and women in the CA unit have a simpler name for it: WAR
In this new novel, Walter Dean Myers looks at contemporary war with the same
power and searing insight he brought to the Vietnam War in his classic,
FALLEN ANGELS. He creates memorable characters, like the book's narrator,
Birdy, a young recruit from Harlem who's questioning why he even enlisted;
Marla, a tough-talking, wisecracking gunner; Jonesy, a guitar-playing
bluesman who just wants to make it back to Georgia and open a club; and a
whole unit of other young men and women, and drops them in Iraq, where they
are supposed to help secure and stabilize Iraq and successfully interact
with the Iraqi people. The young civil affairs soldiers soon find their
definition of "winning" ever more elusive and their good intentions being
replaced by terms like "survival" and "despair." Caught in the crossfire,
Myers' richly rendered characters are just beginning to understand the
meaning of war in this powerful, realistic novel of our times.
 Dope Sick
Click to order via
Amazon Reading level:
Young Adult
Library Binding: 192 pages
Publisher: Amistad (February 10, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061214787
ISBN-13: 978-0061214783
Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.2 x 1 inches The itch
starts when things get too heavy for Lil J. Skin popping or stealing pain
pills from his mom help him relax. But Lil J's focus is wandering because
money is short, and his man Rico knows a way to make some quick cash. It's
supposed to be an easy deal, but it isn't so simple when the buyer is an
undercover cop.
With a gunshot wound to the arm, Rico in jail, and a police officer clinging
to life, Lil J is starting to get dope sick. He'd do anything to change the
last twenty-four hours, and when he stumbles into an abandoned crack house,
it actually might be possible. . . .
Walter Dean Myers weaves elements of magical realism into a harrowing story
about drug use, violence, alternate perceptions of reality, and second
chances  Bad Boy:
A Memoir
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ISBN: 0064472884
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: May 01, 2002
Publisher: Amistad
Reading Level: Young Adult
As a boy, Walter Dean Myers was quick-tempered and physically strong, always
ready for a fight. He also read voraciously-he would check out books from
the library and carry them home, hidden in brown paper bags in order to
avoid other boys' teasing. He aspired to be a writer. But growing up in a
poor family in Harlem, his hope for a successful future diminished as he
came to realize fully the class and racial struggles that surrounded him. He
began to doubt himself and the values that he had always relied on,
attending high school less and less, turning to the streets and his books
for comfort. In a memoir that is gripping, funny, and
ultimately unforgettable, Walter Dean Myers travels back to his roots in the
magical world of Harlem during the 1940s and 1950s. Here is the story of one
of the strongest voices in young people's literature today.  What
They Found: Love on 145th Street
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Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books (September 11, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385321384
WALTER DEAN MYERS returns to the world of 145th
Street: Short Stories to show how love can be found, and thrive, in the
most unlikely places. Curtis finds love in Iraq as he struggles to stay
alive in a war he doesn't want to fight, and Letha discovers her own beauty
in the love of her child. There is the "good daughter" who realizes that
there's only one way to help her brother and her family. Other stories
center on the daily drama of the Curl-E-Que beauty shop, or capture the
slapstick side of passion.
 Blues Journey
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(Hardcover/Paperback/Cassette/CD)
by Walter Dean Myers, illustrated by Christopher Myers
From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. The blues' deceptively simple rhyme scheme tracks the deeper feelings
of lives that have been bruised. In this picture book for older readers, Myers
offers blues-inspired verse that touches on the black-and-blue moments of
individual lives. His son Christopher's images, which illustrate the
call-and-response text, alternate between high spirited and haunting. Myers
begins with a very necessary introduction to the history of the blues that
includes an explanation of the rhyme scheme. Still, the level of sophistication
necessary for kids to get into the book is considerable:
Strange fruit hanging,
high in the big oak tree
Strange fruit hanging high
in the big oak tree
You can see what it did to
Willie,
and you see what it did to
me.
Myers' original verse is
unsettling if young people know the reference from the Billie Holiday song, but
unclear if they don't ("strange fruit" is defined in the glossary). The
accompanying illustration, though it's one of the less inspired ones, helps
clarify things--a boy walks in a crowd carrying a sign saying, "yesterday a
man was lynched." But there's no cohesion between the spreads, and the next
one features a blues singer at a mike: "The thrill is gone, but love is still in
my heart . . . I can feel you in the music and it's tearing me apart." Much of
Myers' poetry here is terrific, by turn, sweet, sharp, ironic, but it's the
memorable collage artwork, executed in the bluest of blue ink and brown paper,
that will draw readers first. Once inside the book, some children will
immediately hear the songs the poetry sings; others will have to listen more
closely. Ilene Cooper Copyright © American Library Association. All rights
reserved —This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
|
|
 The Blues of Flats Brown
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Amazon
by Walter Dean Myers, Illustrated by Nina Laden, and performed by Charles Turner
Amazon.com
As this skilled duo did with Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride, Pam Muñoz Ryan
and Brian Selznick bring to life the story of yet another remarkable American
woman, gifted black contralto Marian Anderson.
Undoubtedly one of America's greatest
singers, Anderson was hardly known in her own country because of her
race--music schools ignored her applications ("We don't take colored!")
and even after she began singing professionally, many venues only
featured white performers. Ryan's well-paced story becomes especially
poignant as she recounts Anderson's overwhelming success in Europe ("one
newspaper in Sweden called it 'Marian Fever' ... In Austria, the
world-famous conductor Arturo Toscanini announced that what he had
heard, one was privileged to hear only once in a hundred years"). The
book reaches its climax with a wordless, deep brown two-page spread from
Selznick, a crowd's-eye view of Anderson singing at the Lincoln Memorial
in 1939, an historic concert that drew an integrated audience of over
75,000.
Ryan's simple, metered text (punctuated
frequently by lyrics) captures the quiet drama of Anderson's story, and
kids will especially identify with the confusion and frustration of
young Marian. And as with the pair's previous collaboration, Selznick's
rich illustrations ably convey the undeniable strength and courage of a
talented, determined woman. (Ages 4 to 8) —Paul
Hughes
|
 Jazz
Click to order via
AmazonISBN: 0823415457
Pub. Date: June 2006
Age Range: 4 to 8
Format: Hardcover, 48pp
Publisher: Holiday House, Inc.
A
Coretta Scott King
Illustrator Honor Books and
NAACP Image
Award Nominee
From bebop to New Orleans, from ragtime to
boogie, and every style in between, this collection of Walter Dean Myers's
energetic and engaging poems, accompanied by Christopher Myers's bright and
exhilarating paintings, celebrates different styles of the American art
form, jazz. Jazz takes readers on a musical journey from jazz's
beginnings to the present day. Time line, glossary.
|
 Street
Love
Amazon
ISBN: 0060280794
Pub. Date: October 31, 2006
Format: Hardcover, 144pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Book Description
Junice
What am I doing?
He'll take one quick look
And wish he was anywhere else but here
I'm already ashamed of what I think
He will think of me, of the life I lead
Damian
Yes, she is the fruit that will
Sustain me and yes, she brings
A rain that I know can chill
But it is a rain so sweet and sings
A song my soul insists
That I follow, if I would exist
As more than I have ever, ever been
If my mother calls it evil, then I embrace the sin
Your first love is totally wrong for you. Do you follow your heart? Or do
you run away?
Michael L. Printz Award winner Walter Dean Myers delivers an evocative tale
of star-crossed urban love, reminding us that before we can be true to
someone else, we must first be true to ourselves.
 Somewhere
in the Darkness
Click to order via Amazon Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Date Published: July 1997
Format: Trade Paper
From the award-winning author of Fallen Angels and Malcolm X: By Any
Means Necessary, here is a powerful, award-winning novel about a 14-year-old
boy who meets his father for the first time and learns that although some
things can't be fixed, they can be understood--and forgiven. 1993 Newbery
Honor Book; 1993 Coretta Scott King Award Honor Book; 1992 Boston Globe/Horn
Book Award Honor Book.
For Grades 7-10 -- A
poignant story of motherless, 14-year-old Jimmy Little, whose convict father
takes him on a search for truth, identity, and family. Whisked away from the
stability of a homelife with his devoted grandmother, Mama Jean, Jimmy
confronts the harsh realities of his father's life on the run. Jailed for
his involvement in an armed robbery and falsely accused of killing a man,
Crab escapes from prison to convince his son of his innocence. What Jimmy
discovers is a man desperate to establish a relationship with his son but
unable to break free of a lifestyle of stealing and moving on that leaves
little room for security. On their highway odyssey, Crab becomes
increasingly sick with a kidney ailment. Following a climactic encounter
with the man who accused him, Crab is again arrested and hospitalized. For
Jimmy, the flicker of hope that he and his father might work things out
becomes a realization that love is built on trust, concern, and honesty.
Through terse dialogue and characterization, Myers conveys a powerful
message about the need for parent and child to believe in and respect one
another. By story's end, the boy understands that to fully appreciate
someone else's life you must first give meaning to your own. Whether from
urban or rural backgrounds, single or double parent families, readers will
find this universal journey of self-discovery gratifying. --Gerry Larson,
Chewning Junior High School, Durham, NC (School Library Journal)
|
The Glory Field
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AmazonFormat:
Mass Market Paperback, 288pp.
ISBN: 0590458981
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Pub. Date: December 1995
One of the best reviewed books of 1994, the
Newbery author's novel follows five generations of one African-American
family from Africa to a South Carolina plantation through the Civil War,
the end of segregation and beyond, to a moving finale, when a young
drug-addicted cousin is brought home to the glory field for a day of
reunion and renewal. |
 The
Righteous Revenge of Artemis Bonner
Click to order via
AmazonFormat: Paperback, 1st ed., 140pp.
ISBN: 0064404625
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Pub. Date: August 1994
"After Uncle Ugly's gunned down by that
sneaky dog Catfish Grimes, 15-year-old Artemis leaves his sainted Dear
Mother and turns cowboy avenger. . . . The pace is brisk, the
tongue-in-cheek humor is beautifully maintained [in this] fist-swinging
adventure." 'BL. "An entertaining yarn that could well introduce new
readers to historical fiction." |
 Monster
Click to order via
Amazon2000 Coretta Scott King
Author Award Book
Format: Hardcover, 1st ed., 288pp.
ISBN: 0060280778
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Pub. Date: March 1999
|
 Slam!
Click to order via
AmazonSixteen-year-old Greg "Slam" Harris can do it all on the basketball
court. His grades aren't so hot, though. And when his teachers jam his
troubles in his face, Slam blows up. He never doubted himself on the court
until he found himself going one on one with his future
1997 Coretta Scott King
Author Award Book |
|
Fallen Angels, Walter Dean Myers
1989 Coretta Scott King
Author Award Book
For Young Adults.
The critically acclaimed story of one young man's tour of duty in Vietnam
and a testament to the thousands of young people who lived and died
during the war. This generation's most powerful Vietnam story. 1989
Coretta Scott King Author Award Book; ALA Notable Children's Trade Book
in the Field of Social Studies.Ages Young Adult. |
Related Links
LEARNING ABOUT WALTER DEAN MYERS. Compiled by: Marilyn
Fischer, Carol Levandowski, Carol Marlowe
www.scils.rutgers.edu/special/kay/myers.html
Walter Dean Myers, the recipient of the first annual
Virginia Hamilton Literary Award
www.kent.edu/virginiahamiltonconf/Myersbio.htm
Color photo of Walter Dean Myers above taken by Marci Wilson at the
1st Harlem Book Fair
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