Bad Boy: A Memoir

 

Ratings: 4 for a middle grade memoir to be used with his books/author study

My Thoughts:

I remember standing in one of those infamous NCTE lines in the exhibit hall for Walter Dean Myers back in the early 2000s. NCTE is the National Council for Teachers of English. This national organization has the most fabulous exhibit hall full of publishers who bring their YA and children's authors to sign ARCs, advanced reader's copy of books. When there is a line, someone fabulous is at the end of it. It is how I have met Laurie Halse Anderson, Matt de La Pena, Gary Paulsen, Angeline Boulley, Gene Luen Yang and Walter Dean Myers.  He was already an established author, a tall, slightly stooped gentleman. Nothing like what is in this book, buth if you have read his YA novels, Somewhere in the Darkness, Scorpions, Monster, you will relook at this memoir as a tale to English teachers about the importance of finding student gifts and overlooking bad behavior for boredom. Often the students that act out are highly intelligent and need to be challenged to find their passion. This is a boy who was too smart for school. He was too energetic for walls that feel like cages. He continued in his career to write about these boys/men on the liminal edge. I read this and listened to the audiobook narrated by actor Joe Morton. 

From the Publisher:

As a boy, 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 (and he eventually succeeded).

But as his hope for a successful future diminished, the values he had been taught at home, in school, and in his community seemed worthless, and he turned to the streets and to his books for comfort.

Publication Information:

Author: Walter Dean Myers

Publisher: Harper Collins (October 6, 2009)

Audiobook narrator: Joe Morton