Walter Dean Myers (1937–2014)
Author of Monster
About the Author
Walter Dean Myers was born on August 12, 1937 in Martinsberg, West Virginia. When he was three years old, his mother died and his father sent him to live with Herbert and Florence Dean in Harlem, New York. He began writing stories while in his teens. He dropped out of high school and enlisted in show more the Army at the age of 17. After completing his army service, he took a construction job and continued to write. He entered and won a 1969 contest sponsored by the Council on Interracial Books for Children, which led to the publication of his first book, Where Does the Day Go? During his lifetime, he wrote more than 100 fiction and nonfiction books for children and young adults. His works include Fallen Angels, Bad Boy, Darius and Twig, Scorpions, Lockdown, Sunrise Over Fallujah, Invasion, Juba!, and On a Clear Day. He also collaborated with his son Christopher, an artist, on a number of picture books for young readers including We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart and Harlem, which received a Caldecott Honor Award, as well as the teen novel Autobiography of My Dead Brother. He was the winner of the first-ever Michael L. Printz Award for Monster, the first recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults. He also won the Coretta Scott King Award for African American authors five times. He died on July 1, 2014, following a brief illness, at the age of 76. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Walter Dean Myers
The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: A World War II Soldier, Normandy, France, 1944 (1999) 1,090 copies
Monster Teen Impulse Story 4 copies
The Cruisers 1 copy
Ace Crime Detective 1 copy
The glory field 1 copy
the outsider 1 copy
Paperback Plus Teacher's Resource Guided Reading Mop Moondance and the Nagasaki Knights (Invitations to Literacy,… (1996) 1 copy
18 pine st. 1 copy
Monster Student Packet Grades 9-12 (Activities to Teach Reading, Thinking, and Writing) (2019) 1 copy
Monstrul 1 copy
The magic forest 1 copy
The Journal of William Thomas Emerson, The Journal of James Edmond Pease & The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins, (My… (2000) 1 copy
Me Mop and the Moondance Kid 1 copy
The Golden Serpent 1 copy
Associated Works
The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales (2011) — Contributor — 860 copies
When I Was Your Age, Volume One: Original Stories About Growing Up (1996) — Contributor — 226 copies
No Easy Answers: Short Stories About Teenagers Making Tough Choices (1997) — Contributor — 138 copies
On the Wings of Peace: Writers and Illustrators Speak Out for Peace, in Memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1995) — Contributor — 98 copies
Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power and Pleasure of Reading and Writing (2018) — Contributor — 75 copies
From One Experience to Another: Award-Winning Authors Sharing Real-Life Experiences Through Fiction (1997) — Contributor — 42 copies
This Family Is Driving Me Crazy: Ten Stories About Surviving Your Family (2009) — Contributor — 27 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Myers, Walter Dean
- Other names
- Myers, Walter Milton (birth name)
Williams, Stacie
Johnson, Stacie - Birthdate
- 1937-08-12
- Date of death
- 2014-07-01
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Martinsburg, West Virginia, USA
- Place of death
- New York, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- West Virginia, USA
New York, New York, USA
Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
Harlem, New York, USA - Occupations
- writer
- Relationships
- Myers, Christopher (son)
- Organizations
- Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI|Board of Advisors)
- Awards and honors
- Margaret A. Edwards Award (1994)
Michael L. Printz Award (2000)
May Hill Arbuthnot Lecturer (2009)
Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award (2010)
National Ambassador for Young People's Literature (2012-2013)
Children's Literature Legacy Award (2019)
Members
Discussions
Monster by Walter Dean Myer in EDE3343 Teaching Adol Lit MS Sp 2012 (January 2012)
Reviews
Historical fiction about the draft riots of 1863, in a screenplay format.
Very quick read, which was great, but it was also very interesting. The way the author set up the book was unique and although the story ended with questions left unanswered, I feel that is what makes the book special. How reliable is the narrator? What really happened? “What did she see?”... great story...probably good for late middle school early high school readers because of some of the rape mentioning a in the prison, just FYI.
Representation: Black characters
Trigger warnings: Murder, imprisonment, physical assault and injury, blood depiction, drug use mentioned
Score: Six points out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.
I saw Monster displayed on the shelves of a library I went to so after I read another book, I immediately seized the opportunity to get it by picking it up. Afterwards, I read Monster, but when I finished it, I thought it had flaws that forced me to lower its rating. Maybe the original text will be a better reading experience for me.
It starts with the first person I see, Steve Harmon, who is arrested and awaiting trial for a murder accusation. He finds an opportunity to live through that journey like it is a movie, and thus the court case begins. There are some flashbacks to explain what happened before the police arrested Steve like the other characters who committed a robbery and, most prominently, the murder of a person. Despite Monster being under 200 pages, it still felt slow paced, allowing me to see the flaws, of which there are many. Why is the art black and white? I can understand that to be intentional, but I would've liked it if the art was full colour. The characters were hard to connect or relate with and the font was hard to read, dampening my reading experience. The conclusion petered out as the legal drama comes to an end.… (more)
Trigger warnings: Murder, imprisonment, physical assault and injury, blood depiction, drug use mentioned
Score: Six points out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.
I saw Monster displayed on the shelves of a library I went to so after I read another book, I immediately seized the opportunity to get it by picking it up. Afterwards, I read Monster, but when I finished it, I thought it had flaws that forced me to lower its rating. Maybe the original text will be a better reading experience for me.
It starts with the first person I see, Steve Harmon, who is arrested and awaiting trial for a murder accusation. He finds an opportunity to live through that journey like it is a movie, and thus the court case begins. There are some flashbacks to explain what happened before the police arrested Steve like the other characters who committed a robbery and, most prominently, the murder of a person. Despite Monster being under 200 pages, it still felt slow paced, allowing me to see the flaws, of which there are many. Why is the art black and white? I can understand that to be intentional, but I would've liked it if the art was full colour. The characters were hard to connect or relate with and the font was hard to read, dampening my reading experience. The conclusion petered out as the legal drama comes to an end.… (more)
Lists
Sonlight Books (1)
African American (1)
Music (1)
Youth: BLM (1)
1800s: America (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 154
- Also by
- 30
- Members
- 32,976
- Popularity
- #587
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 1,188
- ISBNs
- 1,114
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 21
This book is about a teenage boy named Kevin who got in trouble because he was the getaway driver in a robbery and he went to jail and was wondering if he could get on the right foot of trust with his teammates, coach, and everyone else. The conflict of the book is, at the beginning of the story Kevin commits a crime, but it isn’t his fault and then he goes to juvie after a while he gets out but people still judge him as a bad person so he struggles on the field.
The three main characters in this book are Sergeant Brown, Kevin, the main character, and Coach Hill. Sergeant Brown was the character who watched over Kevin when he was in trouble and out of jail and playing soccer. Kevin is the main character in this story. He got in trouble by association and went to jail and he played soccer. Coach Hill was the coach of Kevin's soccer team and he was very stern, especially towards Kevin after he got out of jail.
The theme of this story is don’t get in trouble even by association. While Kevin was not robbing he was the getaway driver for the robbery and that is what got him in trouble. And it developed a sense of mistrust between his coach and him for a while.
I recommend this novel because it is about sports and real life that can happen in real life.
Although it may seem confusing at first it all pieces up as the story goes on, so if you like crime sports, and real-life situations I would recommend this book for you.… (more)