Walter Dean Myers

**Walter Dean Myers** (born **Walter Milton Myers**; August 12, 1937 – July 1, 2014) was an American novelist. He wrote children's books and young adult literature. He wrote over one hundred books including picture books and non-fiction. He won the Coretta Scott King Award for African-American authors five times. His works included _Hoops_ (1983), _Fallen Angels_ (1988) and _Monster_ (1999).

Myer was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He was raised in Harlem, New York City.

Myers died from a short illness on July 1, 2014 in Jersey City, New Jersey, aged 76. He was outlived by his wife and two sons.

## Works

- _The Life of a Harlem Man_, illustrated by Gene Riarti (Parents Magazine Press, 1968)
- _Where Does a Day Go?_, illustrated by Leo Carty (Parents Magazine, 1968)
- _The Dancers_, illustrated by Anne Rockwell (Parents Magazine, 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 Press, 1975)
- _Social Welfare_ (Franklin Watts, 1976)
- _Victory for Jamie_ (Scholastic Books, 1977)
- _Mojo and the Russians_ (Viking, 1977)
- _Brainstorm_, illustrated with photographs by Chuck Freedman (Franklin Watts, 1977)
- _It Ain't All for Nothin_' (Viking, 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). Mindless Behavior
- _The Legend of Tarik_ (Viking, 1981)
- _Hoops_ (Delacorte Press, 1981) – a basketball player tries not to end up
- _Won't Know Till I Get There_ (Viking, 1982) – young boys are forced to work in a retirement home
- _Tales of a Dead King_ (William Morrow and Company, 1983)
- _The Nicholas Factor_ (Viking, 1983)
- _Motown and Didi: A Love Story_ (Viking, 1984) – a young couple's love story, 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) – a girl want to be a young fashion model
- _Fallen Angels_ (1988) – about 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.
- _Darnell Rock Reporting_ (1994) – a 13-year-old boy joins the school newspaper.
- _Malcolm X – By Any Means Necessary_ (Scholastic, 1994)
- _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.
- _We Were Heroes: The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins – a World War II Soldier, Normandy, France, 1944_ (1999)– featuring the invasion of Normandy
- _145th Street: Short Stories_ (2001)
- _Greatest: Muhammad Ali_ (2001)
- _Bad Boy; A Memoir_ (2001) – Myers' life as a young boy growing up in 1940s Harlem (part of the Amistad Series)
- _Handbook for Boys: A Novel_ (2003)
- _Somewhere in the Darkness_ (2003) – a young boy travels to Arkansas with a father who did not raise him
- _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_ (1998) – a 14-year-old boy copes with life in Harlem by drawing.
- _Street Love_ (2006) – poetic novel of a romance in Harlem
- _What They Found: Love on 145th Street_ (2007)
- _Harlem Summer_ (2007)
- _Game_ (2008)
- _Sunrise Over Fallujah_ (2008) – sequel to _Fallen Angels_, taking place in the Iraq War
- _Dopesick_ (2009) – a teenager kills a policeman, and must contemplate his future
- _Riot_ (2009) – fictional account of the New York Draft Riots in 1863, during the American Civil War, by the 15-year-old daughter of a black man and an Irish immigrant
- _Amiri & Odette_ (2009) – the classic _Swan Lake_ ballet recast in hip-hop verse
- _Lockdown_ (2010)
- _Sunrise Over Fallujah_ (2010)
- _Kick_ (2011), by Myers and Ross Workman
- _The Cruisers_ (2011)
- _We Were Heroes: The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins, a World War II Soldier_ (2011)
- _The Cruisers Checkmate_ (2012)
- _The Cruisers Book 3 A Star is Born_ (2012)
- _Darius & Twig_ (2013)
- _Invasion_ (2013) – prequel to _Fallen Angels_
- _Juba!_ (2015) - A fictionalized history of William Henry Lane a.k.a Master Juba, a dancer who lived in the mid 1800s and his life and dance career in New York City and London.
- _The Baddest Dog in Harlem_ (February 2016 [unspecified])