Full name: Bad Boy: A Memoir

Author: Walter Dean Myers Year: 2001 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Memoirs, Non Fiction Culture: African-American Purchase/reserch links: Amazon Goodreads LibraryThing ISBNs: 9780064472883 0064472884

In a memoir that is gripping, funny, and ultimately unforgettable, New York Times bestselling author 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 most distinguished writers of young people's literature today. 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. But while 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 to his books for comfort. Supports the Common Core State Standards. Similar books: Life on the Color Line by Gregory Howard Williams All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou Finding Fish by Antwone Q. Fisher Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou The Same River Twice by Alice Walker In Pieces by Sally Field Extraordinary, Ordinary People by Condoleezza Rice An Open Book by Monica Dickens Then Again by Diane Keaton Myself When Young by Daphne Du Maurier My Own Two Feet by Beverly Cleary Traci Lords: Underneath It All by Traci Lords A House Unlocked by Penelope Lively Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou Malcolm X by Walter Dean Myers The Color of Water by James McBride Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Charles M. Blow The Prisoner's Wife by Asha Bandele