Reviewed by Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

I really enjoyed 145TH STREET: SHORT STORIES when it came out quite a few years ago, so I was anxious to read this new collection of stories. Once again, Walter Dean Myers takes readers into the world on 145th Street. WHAT THEY FOUND revisits the characters of the previous short stories and updates their lives.

The central theme of WHAT THEY FOUND is love. Each story shares a relationship - romantic love, sibling love, parental love, and more. The stories are flavored with Harlem life as only Myers is able to capture.

There's the frustration of loving a brother who is a constant disappointment to the family. Leading a life of drugs and crime takes its toll on love.

There are relationships in the making and relationships beginning to crumble. Myers describes the tough love of women raising babies alone or trying everything to hang onto the father of a child. Some relationships beat the odds stacked against them, while others continue to exist only in dreams.

The final chapter attempts to explain the frightening need for love while facing the world beyond our own front yard. A young soldier from the Harlem neighborhood struggles to survive physically and emotionally in the middle of the violence in Afghanistan. Love offers an oasis from the horrors of war.

Each chapter shares a story and many of them overlap and intertwine as readers are reacquainted with the neighborhood of 145th Street. WHAT THEY FOUND is a welcome companion to the first collection or stands very strongly on its own. ( )

These stories show how residents in this neighborhood in New York City’s Harlem value courage, compassion, love, kindness and hard work. And how they come together to help one another in their struggles of life.
This book of fifteen short stories by Walter Dean Myers is set in New York City’s Harlem in and around 145th Street. Most of his characters are dynamic, honest and believable. Myers writing style is simple and direct. Many of the stories are set in the Curl-E-Que beauty shop which is similar to the shops in the movies Steel Magnolia’s or Barbershop. Many of the characters who are minor characters in some of the earlier stories are the main characters in later stories. Curtis, who is introduced in the first story, is the main character in the final story “Combat Zone.” All of the stories are about the human experience and about the characters’ ability to adapt to whatever life throws their way. The awards won by this book include: The Boston Globe-Horn Honor Book, Horn Book, Fanfare & ALA Best Book for YA. I would recommend this book for young adults 14 years and older due to the mild sexual content. ( )

On 145th Street, the Curl-E-Que Beauty Shop serves as a central point for both the community and the stories that they have to tell. Each vingette tells a facet of life on 145th Street. Each is capable of standing on it's own from Cheryl, who tries to seduce her best friend's boyfriend to help her determine if he is a good catch to Calvin as he reconsiders his attempts to buy a gun after visiting a prison; Abeni learns that she achieved her 15 minutes of fame by breaking up with her boyfriend on camera. This book provides a series of tales of promising athletes, desperate mothers, and misguided adolescents. The dialogue is authentic and engaging for all readers to include the reluctant reader who is trying to find their life in a story. The sometimes-amusing chapter titles are in contrast to the occasionally stark content. The final story takes Corporal Curtis Mason from the neighborhood to Afghanistan. Characters are rich in detail and the setting well developed. These are urban tales that not only depict the heartbreak but also the hope. Highly recommended. ( )

From Booklist
*Starred Review* A neighborhood beauty salon is the setting for lots of the fast, funny talk in these stirring contemporary stories, which nonetheless give a grim view of being "poor and black," whether on the streets of Harlem, in prison, or on the war front in Afghanistan. Rooted in the harsh realism of widespread unemployment, drug use, and trouble ("more brothers going to jail than going to college"), the teens' tender connections are heartbreaking. A single teenage mother loves her baby, and so does the young dad, who wishes he could support them. Some teens are college-bound, but a boy with a high-school diploma can't find work: will he get a gun? Tough gangster Burn is gentle with handicapped kids, but he cannot connect with the girl he loves. In "Mama," a kid who cares for her mom, a recovering addict, and tries to get her brother to preschool turns out to be only eight years old. There are lighter moments, too; in "Poets and Plumbers," Noee feels uncomfortable in Kyle's apartment until she shows him how to unplug his kitchen drain. Each story stands alone, but some are connected, and readers familiar with Myers' 145th Street (2000) will welcome back some characters. Hope lies in what the book title says, finding love and community. Rochman, Hazel

A collection of short stories from one of the great authors. These stories are all about love; husband-wife; parent-child; siblings; neighbors and friends. The stories work great separately for readings and also paint one large mosaic picture of Harlem and this community. Readers who liked Street Love will like seeing characters they are already familiar with. ( )