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Title: Bad Boy: A Memoir by Walter Dean Myers ISBN: 0-06-447288-4 Publisher: Amistad Press Pub. Date: 07 May, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.91 (11 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The Rode Not Taken By The Bad Boy
Comment: Bad Boys by Walter Dean Myers would receive 4 stars for reality, suspense, flare, and an on the edge of your seat story line.Bad Boys is about a young boy named Walter whose life really only revolves around his family, school, friends, and his secret love of literature. Walter has a big problem with getting into mischief. He is always sitting in the corner or having his mother?s request to come in. But, his biggest problem is that when he gets home his mother is never happy with him, and her being an abusive alcoholic sometimes she would get rough with Walter. Walter is an exceptionally bright student but with one problem, he has a speaking impairment. This impairment cannot be detected by Walter, but to everyone else it is a large distraction. Despite his speaking, Walter gets excepted to a higher grade and excepts the request. Through his new grade Walter learns the difference between being white and being black. Although Walter is black, he never knew that, that was looked at as a bad thing to most whites. Besides Walter being taunted about being black, he would also be taunted if everyone knew he loved literature and poetry.
At Walter?s new school, he begins to slowly grow up. He begins to skip school sporadically and begins to hang around a new friend. He slowly is persuaded by his family to change his ways.
Rating: 5
Summary: A good book for teens.
Comment: The book Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers is a memoir of the author's life. Set mostly in Harlem, the book follows Myers' troublesome childhood and the challenges he faced with his family life, his adoption, and his behavior. Though a bright child, he had a quick temper and a speech problem. This got him into many bad situations and unfortunately partly led to his "downfall" in school.
In Bad Boy, I loved how the setting of the book is in Harlem, where I have visited many times. I am familiar with many of the places he "relaxed" in and feel connected to him somehow. The book is wonderfully written and shows that in the end, even a "troubled" boy can succeed. The author was adopted by Herbert and Florence Myers and many times talks about his and biological and natural families in the book. He gets the Dean in his name from his biological father and the Myers in his name from his adoptive father. The book shows the world of poverty, something that I am not acquainted with at all. It showed me that everyone does not have the things that us "middle class" kids have. All in all, he was raised in a bad situation, but turned out good in the end. In a teenager's view, parents are wrong. Period. In reality, they are only wrong sometimes, not all the time, or, just don't understand. In the end of the book on page 205, his father says, "You wrote stories when you were a boy. You're a man, now." This shows that his father didn't understand his passion for writing, and thought that writing was not "man's work".
I believe there were many small themes in the book. Bad Boy highlighted racism, teenage hood, and poverty just to name a few. As an African American teenager, I have experienced some, but not all of the things he has. I think that the main theme of the book is misunderstanding. When he spent all his time reading and writing his mother didn't understand him. When he skipped school, no one really understood him and he was sent to a social worker. Racism is product of misunderstanding. Even now, I don't understand why he skipped school, but then again, I haven't been adopted, or live in Harlem, or have a passion for reading. I have not walked in his shoes. That is one of the reasons I read this book, so that I could see what his life was like. So that I could enter an unfortunate teenager's life and realize that I am truly blessed.
All in all, this book is one of the best books I have read. I would recommend it too anyone in the hallway at school, or passers by on the sidewalk. His writings are geared toward children and teenagers, so it is a more appealing book to that group than to adults, but adults should read this too. Maybe they can venture into the life of a teenager, or a child in poverty. Maybe they can remember their childhood and how the world was so different then.
A lot can be learned from this book, but I think that the most important thing is the acceptance of ideas and others.
Rating: 2
Summary: Nicholas Richview Middle
Comment: The story was about a boy born in a crowd of people. The boys mom died when he was 8 . years old. The boy was adopted and lived in a little town called Harlem. The boys name was Walter Dean. He was always in a fight at school in Mr. Conroys class. This caused the boy to miss so m up to write this book school that they were going to put him in a juvinele faciliy. The boy learned to stop fighting and that is how the story ends.
I liked the book because I was like the boy in a way,I was always getting in trouble. I would get my friends to rend this book because the boy had a hard life and was adopted and poor and grew up to write this book
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Title: Monster (rpkg) by Walter Dean Myers ISBN: 0064407314 Publisher: Harpercollins Juvenile Books Pub. Date: 08 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Slam! by Walter Dean Myers ISBN: 0590486683 Publisher: Scholastic Pub. Date: November, 1998 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Scorpions (rack) by Walter Dean Myers ISBN: 0064470660 Publisher: HarperTrophy Pub. Date: 25 April, 1990 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: 145th Street : Short Stories by Walter Dean Myers ISBN: 0440229162 Publisher: Laure Leaf Pub. Date: 09 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $5.50 |
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Title: Hoops by Walter Dean Myers ISBN: 0440938848 Publisher: Laure Leaf Pub. Date: 15 March, 1983 List Price(USD): $5.50 |
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