Author Walter Dean Myers Has Died at Age 76

Well-known young adult author Walter Dean Myers died Tuesday after a brief illness.  He is the author of more than 100 books for children and teens and has been praised for his realistic writing of African American youth usually in an urban setting.  Walter Dean Myers was the first recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton award for Lifetime Achievement.  His books also received a number of literary awards including which won the Printz award and Scorpions and Somewhere in the Darkness which both won the Newbery Honor award in 1989 and 1993 respectively.

“I write books for the troubled boy I once was and for the boy who lives inside me still.”