Young Adult Fiction! discussion
Any Walter Dean Myers Fans???
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Kelly Rueda
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 01:44PM)
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Nov 13, 2007 02:18PM
Anyone into Walter Dean Myers? I haven't read as many as I would like to but can't seem to ever put them down once I get started, especially Scorpions!
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I have taught Monster for 5 years now to middle and high school struggling readers and it has always been one of my most successful units. He really gets the characters' voices down which makes their stories accessible.
Love that Dog by Sharon Creech is a book in poems which is pretty much an ode to how great Myers is and the impact that he has on students. I would highly recommend it.
And his son, Chris Myers is writing some great children books of his own.
I've read Bad Boy, Monster and Shooter. I enjoyed all of them and wouldn't mind reading other Myers books. Robert Cormier still has my heart though.
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But, I madly appreciate and respect the fact that he is always one of the top 100 authors banned each year. So is Myers for that matter.
I love him. I met he and his son this summer at Book Expo America in NYC and he is so wonderful and charming. He and his son/artist did JAZZ together which is a wonderful picture book for any age!
Well, Cormier did grow up in the 1930s, has been dead for seven years, and many of his best books were written in the seventies.I myself never had trouble relating to the characters. To the contrary, it was like I could have known them in real life.
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I read The Chocolate War, but never got beyond that. Which of his books would you recommend?
I am the Cheese is definitely Robert Cormier's best book. It's beautifully structured and continues to affect me ten years after I first read it. Cormier wrote three novels for adults, one short story collection (not very good) and one collection of his newspaper columns in addition to a bunch of young adult fictions. I've had the pleasure of reading several of his early drafts of his books and it's amazing to see his mind/writing process all the way through.
