There are good people and there are monsters!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Words From The Author, Walter Dean Myers

I was born on a Thursday, the 12th of August, 1937, in Martinsburg, West Virginia. My name at birth was Walter Milton Myers. For some strange reason I was given to a man named Herbert Dean who lived in Harlem. I consider it strange because I don't know why I was given away. I was raised in Harlem by Herbert and his wife, Florence. Herbert was African American. Florence was German and Native American and wonderful and loved me very much. As a child my life centered around the neighborhood and the church. The neighborhood protected me and the church guided me. I resisted as much as I could. I was smart (all kids are smart) but didn't do that well in school.
I dropped out of high school (although now Stuyvesant High claims me as a graduate) and joined the army on my 17th birthday.
Basketball has always been a passion of mine. Sometimes at night I lie in bed thinking about games I've played. Sometimes I think about what would have happened if I had gone into the NBA (I was never good enough) or college ball.
Anyway.... I wrote well in high school and a teacher (bless her!) recognized this and also knew I was going to drop out. She advised me to keep on writing no matter what happened to me.
"It's what you do," she said.
I didn't know exactly what that meant but, years later, working on a construction job in New York, I remembered her words. I began writing at night and eventually began writing about the most difficult period of my own life, the teen years. That's what I do.

Source: http://www.walterdeanmyers.net/bio.html
            Web   4-13-11   9:17 PM

EXCERPT

When Miss O'Brien look at me, after we had won the case, what did she see that caused her to turn away?

WHAT DID SHE SEE?!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Steve Harmon

This book is very intense it shows the poor life of Steve Harmon and how he is sent to jail because he was accused of taking part in the drug store robbery that caused that poor man his life!...