Legendary author Walter Dean Myers was once a troublemaker and a truant.
Just how bad was he? From instigating mischievous pranks at home to fighting in the classroom—especially when teased about his speech impediment—irrepressible Walter was more than a handful. Underneath it all, he had a tremendous love for books, and by high school he longed to become a writer. But financial troubles at home made him feel his options were so limited that he dropped out of school. Still, his desire to write was as irrepressible as Walter himself. If he could only be given the chance…
Walter recounts what growing up in Harlem was like in the 1940s and 1950s—when seeing Langston Hughes and Sugar Ray Robinson on the street was the norm and Jackie Robinson ruled the baseball field.
Gripping. Funny. Heartbreaking. Walter Dean Myers's memoir is unforgettable. This is the award-winning story of one of the strongest voices in children’s and young adult literature.
Walter Dean Myers was the New York Times bestselling author of Monster, the winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award; a National Ambassador for Young People's Literature; and an inaugural NYC Literary Honoree. Myers received every single major award in the field of children's literature. He was the author of two Newbery Honor Books and six Coretta Scott King Awardees. He was the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults and a three-time National Book Award Finalist as well as the first-ever recipient of the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Dawud Anyabwile is an Emmy Award–winning artist and the cocreator and illustrator of the groundbreaking comics series Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline, which is cocreated and written by his brother, Guy A. Sims. Dawud has also worked as a character designer on television productions such as The Wild Thornberrys and Rugrats as well as served as a production artist on a variety of music videos, commercials, and game animations.