Walter Dean Myers
Walter Dean Myers, Walter Dean Myers, illus. by Ann Grifalconi. . HarperTrophy, $6.99 (40pp) ISBN 978-0-06-073159-5
In a starred review,
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Reviewed on: 01/03/2005
Genre: Children's
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- MONSTERWalter Dean Myers. "Myers bends the novel form for this riveting courtroom drama that explores the guilt or innocence of a teenage boy involved in a murder," wrote PW in Continue reading »
- BAD BOY: A MemoirWalter Dean MyersMyers provides a sincere, friendly and unscripted introduction to this chronicle of his life, quickly engaging listeners. But Myers's vocal presence is too short-lived. Though Morton Continue reading »
- THE BLUES OF FLATS BROWNWalter Dean Myers"An exceptionally talented junkyard dog gets his due in this picture-book tribute to the blues," said PW. "Youngsters will take to this canine Continue reading »
- 145TH STREET: Short StoriesWalter Dean MyersIn a starred review, PW called this collection of 10 stories set in Harlem, "a kind of literary Rear Window. Myers creates Continue reading »
- PATROL: An American Soldier in VietnamWalter Dean MyersCamouflage endpapers set the stage for Myers's (Handbook for Boys: A Novel, reviewed below) unusual and gripping picture book set in Vietnam and geared to Continue reading »
- HANDBOOK FOR BOYS: A NovelWalter Dean MyersReturning to the setting for his 145th Street: Short Stories, Myers (Monster) constructs a penetrating profile of a community Continue reading »
- CRYSTALWalter Dean MyersMyers penetrates the modeling world in this tale of a 16-year-old professional model living in New York City, first published in 1987, who learns some tough truths about what it takes. Ages Continue reading »
- BAD BOY: A MemoirWalter Dean Myers"Myers paints a fascinating picture of his childhood growing up in Harlem in the 1940s, with an adult's benefit of hindsight," wrote PW. "What Continue reading »
- THREE SWORDS FOR GRANADAWalter Dean MyersMyers (Monster) shifts gears to offer younger readers an entertaining swashbuckler set in 1420 Spain. The author sets up the conflict between the Moors and the Continue reading »
- HANDBOOK FOR BOYSWalter Dean MyersJames's strong portrayals of the African-American men and boys in a Harlem barbershop aren't enough to help this audiobook overcome the preachy tone of Myers's novel. Duke, owner of a Continue reading »
- BLUES JOURNEYWalter Dean MyersThis handsomely designed volume by the father-and-son creators of Harlem succeeds as an introduction to the blues genre but lacks a story line to unify the disparate verses. The author begins with Continue reading »
- HANDBOOK FOR BOYS: A NovelWalter Dean Myers"Returning to the setting for his 145th Street: Short Stories, the author juxtaposes a sketch of the 16-year-old narrator's home life with nuggets of Continue reading »
- A TIME TO LOVE: Stories from the Old TestamentWalter Dean MyersThe father-and-son team behind the Caldecott Honor book Harlem recasts a half dozen episodes from the Bible with teen narrators, giving the audience new ways of Continue reading »
- IT AIN'T ALL FOR NOTHIN'Walter Dean MyersIn this ALA Notable book originally published in 1978, a boy must make a decision about whether to act as accomplice to his thieving father, or reject the man's path and risk losing him. Continue reading »
- THE DREAM BEARERWalter Dean MyersAs in Myers's Handbook for Boys: A Novel, an older man imparts his experience and wisdom to a bright, receptive youth—in this case, 12-year-old Continue reading »
- THE BEASTWalter Dean MyersMyers (Monster ) sketches a provocative picture of an intelligent, likable 16-year-old straddling two worlds: his neighborhood on 145th Street in Harlem and the Continue reading »
- I'VE SEEN THE PROMISED LAND: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.Walter Dean MyersAlthough in their Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly Myers and Jenkins concentrated a great deal on Malcolm X's childhood, in this concise chronicle of Continue reading »
- MALCOLM X: Fire Burning BrightWalter Dean MyersIn this excellent picture-book biography, Myers focuses on the challenging childhood of Malcolm Little, who would grow up to be Malcolm X, and draws upon the man's own words to illustrate his Continue reading »
- SHOOTERWalter Dean MyersIn this chilling cautionary tale, Myers revisits the themes of his Monster and Scorpions in a slightly more detached Continue reading »
- USS CONSTELLATION: Pride of the American NavyWalter Dean MyersMyers (Now Is Your Time! ) offers a meticulously researched, fast-flowing chronicle of the historic Constellation , originally Continue reading »
- THE DREAM BEARERWalter Dean MyersA 12-year-old boy living in Harlem meets a man who says he's more than 300 years old and that he is a dream bearer. According to PW , "Myers portrays a Continue reading »
- HERE IN HARLEM: Poems in Many VoicesWalter Dean MyersIn nearly 60 poems, Myers (145th Street ) treats readers to a tour of Harlem's past and present, its hopes and fears, through the voices of narrators young Continue reading »
- ShooterWalter Dean Myers"In this chilling cautionary tale, Myers revisits the themes of his Monster and Scorpions in a slightly more detached Continue reading »
- Autobiography of My Dead BrotherWalter Dean MyersMyers mines the themes he explored in his Scorpions and Monster here, but with less subtlety. Jesse, 15, chronicles the Continue reading »
- JazzWalter Dean MyersThe father-and-son team behind blues journey creates a scintillating paean to jazz. Walter Dean Myers infuses his lines (and the rests between them) with so Continue reading »
- Street LoveWalter Dean MyersMyers's (Monster ) compellingly readable novel in verse unfolds through an array of characters, all linked by Damien Battle and Junice Ambers—who both Continue reading »
- Harlem SummerWalter Dean MyersMyers's (Monster ) historical novel pays tribute to the many well-known African-Americans on the rise during Harlem's Renaissance, through the eyes of Continue reading »
- Sunrise over FallujahWalter Dean MyersHere it is at last—the novel that will allow American teens to grapple intelligently and thoughtfully with the war in Iraq. Robin Perry, nephew of the soldier central to Myers's Vietnam Continue reading »
- Amiri and Odette: A Love StoryWalter Dean MyersMyers’s (Sunrise over Fallujah ) and Steptoe’s (In Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall ) concept, recasting
Continue reading » - Dope SickWalter Dean MyersUsing both harsh realism and a dose of the fantastic, Myers (Game ) introduces an inner-city teen in the jaws of a crisis: 17-year-old Lil J is holed up in an Continue reading »
- RiotWalter Dean MyersWritten in screenplay format like his Printz Award–winning Monster , Myers's historical novel is set in 1863 New York City during the Civil War draft Continue reading »
- Looking Like MeWalter Dean MyersThis always-inventive father and son team (Jazz ) offers up an “I am jam,” celebrating how every individual is really a collection of identities. The Continue reading »
- LockdownWalter Dean MyersMaurice “Reese” Anderson is sentenced to 38 months in Progress, a juvenile detention center in New York, for stealing prescription forms for use in a drug-dealing operation. After 22 Continue reading »
- The CruisersWalter Dean MyersFour smart but underachieving students—Zander, LaShonda, Bobbi, and Kambui—at a Harlem school for the gifted and talented star in Myers’s (Sunrise over Fallujah) thought-provoking if occasionally Continue reading »
- The Mouse RapWalter Dean MyersIn rhythmic vernacular, the Newbery Honor author brings to life the summer misadventures of a 14-year-old Harlem youth. Ages 10-14. Continue reading »
- Darnell Rock ReportingWalter Dean Myers, Walter D. MeyersA struggling middle school student finds a way to turn his life around when he works on the school newspaper; PW called this story ""lively"" and ""uplifting."" Ages 8-12. Continue reading »
- HarlemWalter Dean Myers, Terry DearyThis heartfelt tribute captures the many moods of Harlem, bringing to life a very real urban community steeped in cultural history. Myers begins his poem with the words ""Harlem was a promise/ Of a Continue reading »
- The Blues of Flats BrownWalter Dean MyersAn exceptionally talented junkyard dog gets his due in Myers's (Monster; Harlem) picture-book tribute to the blues. Though Flats would love to just play the blues on his guitar and sing all day, his Continue reading »
- Blues JourneyWalter Dean MyersThis handsomely designed volume by the father-and-son creators of Harlem succeeds as an introduction to the blues genre but lacks a story line to unify the disparate verses. The author begins with Continue reading »
- Mop/Buckies/Moondan/Walter Dean MyersMyers combines wit, sensitivity and insight to create this funny, fast-paced story about three orphaned children and the Elks, a Little League baseball team. T.J., his brother Moondance and their Continue reading »
- Brown Angels: An Album of Pictures and VerseWalter Dean MyersMyers ( Scorpions ; Now Is Your Time! ) gathers a stirring collection of turn-of-the-century photographs of black children and sets them to poetry, his verse alternating between the music of Continue reading »
- Darnell Rock ReportingWalter Dean MyersMyers's ( Brown Angels ; Scorpions ) lively and uplifting novel focuses on a struggling middle-school student who finds a way to turn his life around. In a last-ditch attempt to prevent the principal Continue reading »
- The Glory FieldWalter Dean MyersSpanning nearly 250 years of African American history, this emotionally charged saga of the Lewis family traces an ongoing battle for freedom and equality. Beginning with young Muhammad Bilal's Continue reading »
- The Story of the Three KingdomsWalter Dean MyersMyers (Brown Angels) and Bryan (Sing to the Sun) make a dynamite team. Here, the hot colors, sweeping lines and stylized figures that characterize Bryan's art form a bold backdrop for the author's Continue reading »
- How Mr. Monkey Saw the Whole WorldWalter Dean MyersIn this ""pithy and piquant fable,"" Mr. Monkey outwits a trickster buzzard who has been bullying other animals out of food. ""Using repetition to humorous effect, Myers's tale dispenses its moral Continue reading »
- How Mr. Monkey Saw the Whole WorldWalter Dean MyersNewbery Honor author Myers (Scorpions; Somewhere in the Darkness) again displays his versatility with this pithy and piquant fable. Repeatedly pulling the same dirty trick, Mr. Buzzard offers, for Continue reading »
- Somewhere in the DarknessWalter Dean MyersPW gave a starred review to this ""stark slice of realism"" about an African American teenager getting to know his ex-convict father. Ages 10-up. Continue reading »
- Slam!Walter Dean MyersA love of basketball isn't necessary to enjoy this gritty, feelingly told tale, but it would certainly help. Myers (The Glory Field) uses contemporary urban black locutions to relay his narrator's Continue reading »
- Malcolm X: By Any Means NecessaryWalter Dean Myers""[Myers] seamlessly fuse[s] historical notes on the era with the activist's story... [a] carefully researched portrait of a deeply devoted individual,"" said PW in a starred review. Age 10-up. Continue reading »
- Slam!Walter Dean Myers""Myers uses contemporary urban black locutions to relay his view of the mean streets of Harlem and to describe some heart-thumping hoop action in a novel that, like most good sports stories, is Continue reading »
- One More River to Cross: An African American Photograph AlbumWalter Dean MyersThis eloquent photoessay, built around hundreds of black-and-white photographs (many from the author's own collection) tells an extraordinary history; a dramatic spread with photos of Booker T. Continue reading »
- Bad Boy: A MemoirWalter Dean MyersMyers paints a fascinating picture of his childhood growing up in Harlem in the 1940s, with an adult's benefit of hindsight. His previous 145th Street: Short Stories conveys a more vivid sense of Continue reading »
- Adventure in GranadaWalter Dean MyersAward-winner Myers kicks off Arrow adventures with a fast, funny, suspenseful stoy related by Chris Arrow, 17. With his younger brother Ken, Chris hangs out in Granada, Spain, while their mother, an Continue reading »
- The Mouse RapWalter Dean MyersThe experiences of a group of Harlem teenagers come alive through Myers's use of their rhythmic vernacular. Mouse, 14, spends the summer playing basketball, preparing for a dance contest Continue reading »
- Now is Your Time!: The African-American Struggle for FreedomWalter Dean MyersCombining the emotional and plot-weaving powers of his novelist talents with a strong author's presence, Myers portrays the quests of individual Africans against the background of broader historical Continue reading »
- Mop, Moondance and the Nagasaki KnightWalter Dean Myers, Walter Dean MeyersT.J., his younger brother Moondance and their best friend Mop are together again in a sequel to Me, Mop, and the Moondance Kid. This time their baseball team is participating in a tournament with two Continue reading »
- The Righteous Revenge of Artemis BonnerWalter Dean MyersUncle Ugly's tombstone reads: ``Here lies Ugly Ned Bonner, Once Alive--Now a Goner.'' Set in the late 1800s, this clever spoof chronicles Artemis Bonner's quest to avenge his uncle's death and to Continue reading »
- Malcolm X: By Any Means NecessaryWalter Dean MyersIn his preface, Newbery Honor book author Myers ( Scorpions ; Fallen Angels ) notes that Malcolm X's pivotal impact on the civil rights movement of the '60s was the result of his distinctive, Continue reading »
- Toussaint L'Ouverture: The Fight for Haiti's FreedomWalter Dean Myers, Jacob LawrenceAs in her Life Around the Lake (coauthored with Gloria Soto), Presilla again examines a little-known culture by means of its textile arts. This time her subject is the Cuna Indians, who inhabit the Continue reading »
- 145th Street: Short StoriesWalter Dean MyersIn a kind of literary Rear Window, Myers (The Blues of Flats Brown, reviewed above) uses 10 short stories to create snapshots of a pulsing, vibrant community with diverse ethnic threads, through all Continue reading »
- MonsterWalter Dean MyersIn this riveting courtroom drama, Steve Harmon, a Harlem teenager involved in a murder, recounts his trial in the form of a movie script. The objectivity with which he records testimony and Continue reading »
- ScorpionsWalter Dean MyersPW called this Newbery Honor novel about a 12-year-old caught up in the violence of Harlem gangs ""realistic, spare and almost unbearably sad."" Ages 12-up. Continue reading »
- Fallen AngelsWalter Dean MyersLike A Rumor of War, Brothers, and the film Platoon, this tells the story of Vietnam from the foot soldier's point of view. Myers accomplishes his heartbreaking intent by pacing the book to mirror Continue reading »
- Fallen AngelsWalter Dean MyersA tour of duty for a young soldier in Vietnam is vividly presented in Myers's exceptional novel. Ages 13-up. Continue reading »
- At Her Majesty's Request: An African Princess in Victorian EnglandWalter Dean MyersMyers's (Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary) discovery of a packet of letters in a rare books shop in London planted the seeds for this fascinating biography, which reconstructs the remarkable life of Continue reading »
- Malcolm X: By Any Means NecessaryWalter Dean MyersIn a starred review, PW admired this ""carefully researched biography,"" which, ""with incisive, precise prose... chronicles the labyrinthine path of Malcolm's life."" Ages 10-13. (Jan.) Continue reading »
- ScorpionsWalter Dean MyersJamal is caught in a tightening web of trouble; his older brother Randy sends word from prison for him to take over as leader of his gang, the Scorpions. But the older members of the gang challenge Continue reading »
- Glorious Angels: A Celebration of ChildrenWalter Dean MyersA sequel to Brown Angels, which paired Myers's verse with turn-of-the-century photographs of African American children, Glorious Angels is comprised of just three poems (""The Mother,"" ""The Continue reading »
- Looking for the Easy LifeWalter Dean MyersOswego Pete, a stringy-looking monkey, sweet-talks his four monkey friends into setting off on a quest for the "Easy Life"; even stolid Uh-Huh Freddie, the chief monkey, gets suckered into the trip. Continue reading »
- CarmenWalter Dean MyersGiven how often Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet has been reinvented, it's surprising that Bizet's famous opera has received little attention in the YA sphere (The Fortune of Carmen Navarro being a Continue reading »
- KickWalter Dean Myers, Ross WorkmanThis book has an intriguing concept: veteran author Myers paired with a teenage fan to write the story of a soccer player in trouble with the law. In their story, Kevin—the 13-year-old son of a Continue reading »
- We Are America: A Tribute from the HeartWalter Dean MyersThe father and son team behind Jazz and other award-winning titles pays homage to the entire United States in a soul-searching, free-verse poem examining the people, ideals, and promise of America. Continue reading »
- All the Right StuffWalter Dean MyersPrintz-winner Myers (Monster) expertly turns a series of Socratic dialogues on the nature of the social contract into an engrossing and fast-paced novel that never feels preachy. Shortly after his Continue reading »
- Muhammad Ali: The People's ChampionWalter Dean MyersThis artful biography of Muhammad Ali begins with his childhood in Louisville, Ky.%E2%80%94he started learning how to fight after his bicycle was stolen%E2%80%94and offers snapshots of his Continue reading »
- JULIO'S MAGICArthur DorrosThe son of Mexican farmers, Julio wants to be a woodcarver, like his aging friend Iluminado ("the best carver in the village"). Heading off to meet Iluminado one day, Julio thinks about Continue reading »
- Everett Anderson's GoodbyeLucille CliftonThe death of Everett Anderson's father brings to a close this empathetic series of verse stories that express universal heartaches and small moments of hope. A Reading Rainbow selection. Ages 5-8. Continue reading »
- The Lion's Whiskers: An Ethiopian FolktaleNancy Raines DayFanaye, beyond child-bearing age when she marries the widower Tesfa, is overjoyed at making a family with her husband and his son, Ababe, ``the child I have always wanted.'' But Ababe wants no part Continue reading »
- In the RainfieldIsaac OlaleyeGrifalconi's (The Village of Round and Square Houses) surreal collages explode across the pages of this eye-popping book, layering photographs and cut-paper images against a whirling, swirling Continue reading »
- Everett Anderson's 1-2-3Lucille CliftonThis collection of brief verses, first published in 1977, chronicles Everett's anxieties when his favorite twosome himself and Mama attracts a new neighbor who comes calling for Mama. With the Continue reading »
- Everett AndersonLucille CliftonOne of the Problems of Everett Anderson, the eighth by Lucille Clifton, illus. by Ann Grifalconi, gently and sensitively addresses the issue of child abuse. After Everett notices bruises and scars Continue reading »
- Jasmine's Parlour DayLynn JosephAs the sun rises, it ``rounds the corner of Jasmine's house and shines through her window like it means business.'' Her mother stands in the doorway, ``balancing her big straw basket on her head like Continue reading »
- Tiny's HatAnn GrifalconiTiny remembers warm and wonderful times filled with laughter, stories and Daddy's ""sweet-sad"" trumpet playing as he holds his hat over the horn to ""soften the sound."" But when he stays away to Continue reading »
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