Walter Dean Myers (born Walter Milton Myers, August 12, 1937, Martinsburg, West Virginia) is an African American author of young adult literature. Myers has written over fifty books, including novels and nonfiction works. He has won the Coretta Scott King Award for African American authors five times. One of his novels, Fallen Angels, has made the American Library Association's list of frequently challenged books, due to adult language and its realistic depiction of the Vietnam War. Most of Myers' works are based in Harlem. His novels frequently portray urban teenagers struggling with gang life, drug use, violence, and peer pressure, who are trying to find ways out of the life they are born into.
When his mother died, while giving birth to his little brother, Myers was given over as a child to Herbert Dean and his wife, who raised him in Harlem, New York. Herbert was an African American man and his wife was of French and Italian descent, who taught English at the local high school. Myers dropped out of high school and joined the army on his 17th birthday. He wrote well in school, and was encouraged to write by his teachers. Myers would write at night, soon writing about his difficult teenage years. When asked what he valued most, he replied, "My books. They were my only real friend growing up,".
Where Does the Night Go?, illustrated by Leo Carty. (Parents Magazine Press, 1969)
The Dancers, illustrated by Anne Rockwell (Parents Magazine Press, 1972)
The Dragon Takes a Wife, illustrated by Ann Grifalconi (Bobbs-Merrill, 1972)
Fly, Jimmy, Fly!, illustrated by Moneta Barnett (Putnam, 1974)
Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff (Viking, 1975)
Social Welfare (Franklin Watts, 1976)
Victory for Jamie (Scholastic, 1977)
Mojo and the Russians (Viking, 1977)
Brainstorm, illustrated with photographs by Chuck Freedman (Franklin Watts, 1977)
It Ain't All for Nothin' (V, 1978)
The Young Landlords (Viking, 1979) - A group of kids take over an apartment building and struggle to maintain it
The Golden Serpent, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen (Viking, 1980)
The Black Pearl and the Ghost; or, One Mystery after Another, illustrated by Robert Quackenbush (Viking, 1980)
The Legend of Tarik (Viking, 1981)
Hoops (Delacorte, 1981) - A promising basketball player tries not to end up like his former pro-playing coach
Won't Know Till I Get There (Viking, 1982) - A 14-year-old boy, his newly adopted brother, and his friends are forced to work in a retirement home
Tales of a Dead King (William Morrow, 1983)
The Nicholas Factor (Viking, 1983)
Motown and Didi: A Love Story (Viking, 1984) - A young couple's romance, and their struggle living in Harlem
Mr. Monkey and the Gotcha Bird, illustrated by Leslie Morrill (Delacorte, 1984)
The Outside Shot (Delacorte, 1984) - A talented Harlem basketball player goes to college to play
Crystal (1987) - The life of a girl who becomes a model.
Fallen Angels (1988) - Young men in the army during the Vietnam war
Scorpions (1990) - a 12-year-old is asked to lead his brother's gang
The Mouse Rap (1990) - A 14-year-old is determined to find the loot from a 1930s bank heist.
Now Is Your Time! The African-American Struggle for Freedom (1992)
The Righteous Revenge of Artemis Bonner (1994) - a 12-year-old boy goes after a man that murdered his uncle.
The Glory Field (1994) - A family's account of their struggle in America from the 18th century to the 1990s.
Shadow of the Red Moon (1995)
Slam (1998) - A young black teen with an attitude problem deals with life on and off the basketball court.
Monster (1999) A 16-year-old black boy is charged with murder.
145th Street: Short Stories (2001)
Greatest: Muhammad Ali (2001)
Bad Boy; A Memoir (2002) (a part of the Amistad Series) - Myers' life as a young boy growing up in 1940s Harlem
Handbook for Boys: A Novel (2003)
Somewhere in the Darkness (2003) - A young boy travels to Arkansas with a father he didn't grow up with
Thanks & Giving: All year long (2004)
Shooter (2004) - two friends of a school shooter give an account of him to the police
The Beast (2003) - A 17-year-old boy comes back to his home in Harlem from his boarding school to find that the girl he loves is using drugs.
Autobiography of My Dead Brother (2005) - A 14-year-old boy copes with life in Harlem by drawing
Street Love (2006) - A poetic novel of a romance in Harlem
What They Found: Love on 145th Street (2007)
Harlem Summer (2007)
Game (2008)
Sunrise Over Fallujah (2008) - A sequel to Fallen Angels, taking place in the Iraq War.
Dopesick (2009) - A teenager kills a policeman, and must contemplate his future
Riot (2009) A fictional account of the New York Draft Riots in 1863, during the Civil War, by the 15-year-old daughter of a black man and an Irish immigrant.
