Bad Boy: A Memoir

I was so excited after hearing Walter Dean Myers at the Scholastic Reading Summit that I knew my next book had to be his memoir, Bad Boy.  This book didn't disappoint.  Myers grew up in Harlem during an exciting time of change in America.  This memoir focuses on his young, struggling years as he tried to figure out who to be and how to be.  He loved reading, writing, and playing ball; he was smart enough to qualify for a gifted program in jr. high and to gain admittance to one of the best academic high schools in New York; however, he was also an emotional boy with a speech impediment who found it easier to communicate with his fists than his voice.  Luckily, he had parents who loved him even though they couldn't fully understand his complex inner universe, and he had a couple of teachers who had more faith in him than he had in himself.  In one important passage, he describes sitting in the principal's office of his high school on the brink of expulsion for truancy when his creative writing teacher walks past.  She pokes her head in, asks if he's in trouble, and whispers to him, "Whatever happens to you, keep on writing."  Thankfully for all of us readers, he followed her advice!