Walter Dean Myers
2) Monster
In the groundbreaking tradition of his award-winning Monster and Bad Boy: A Memoir, Walter Dean Myers fashions a highly readable, powerful novel about the rules for success for young men, especially those navigating coming of age while Black.
Jimmy and Kevin could use a guide to life. When each of the boys gets in the kind of trouble that almost lands them in juvenile detention, their neighbor Duke steps in and offers them
...5) Street Love
This groundbreaking novel in verse from Walter Dean Myers—two-time Newbery Honor winner and five-time Coretta Scott King Award winner—is a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story set in Harlem. Share this one with readers taken with books by Jason Reynolds, Nic Stone, and Elizabeth Acevedo.
Whether read at home or in the classroom, and alongside the original inspiration or on its own. Street Love is sure to spark opinions
...6) Tags
From Walter Dean Myers, the New York Times bestselling author of Monster, comes this 20-page one-act play. Tags is a look at life and death in New York City, complete with a shocking end.
Four New York City teens are shot down in the prime of life. They move through limbo, re-creating their distinctive tags in a Harlem walk-up so that they can "live" forever. But what's the point? How can you think of living forever if you're already
...7) Slam!
8) Riot
11) Invasion
12) Darius & Twig
13) On a Clear Day
Young heroes decide that they are not too young or too powerless to change their world in this gripping, futuristic young adult novel by the New York Times bestselling author of the Printz Award–winning Monster.
It is 2035. Teens, armed only with...
As a fourteen-year-old he was Malcolm Little, the president of his class and a top student. At sixteen he
was hustling tips at a Boston nightclub. In Harlem he was known as Detroit Red, a slick street operator. At
nineteen he was back in Boston, leading a gang of burglars. At twenty he was in prison.
It was in prison that Malcolm Little started the journey...
15) The Dream Bearer
16) Scorpions
Twelve-year-old Jamal is in trouble at home, at school, and on the street. His big brother, the leader of the Harlem Scorpions, is in jail for robbery. Now Jamal is expected to lead the gang and even has to carry a gun. When two of the Scorpions call him out to the park to challenge his leadership, Jamal takes the gun with him—a decision that will change his life forever. Scorpions is a powerful portrayal of the fear, frustration, and despair
...17) Crystal
18) Pirate
Abdullah Syed Hari is fourteen years old. He loves his family and his friends. And he is a Somali pirate. A short story from Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka.
20) Blues Journey
The opening line of this call and response style verse asks the question that forms the thread throughout – Blues, what you mean to me? In a magnificent collaboration of words, art, and song, a timeline of the blues is presented in a soulful reading and dramatic musical accompaniment that offers a compelling evocation of the blues experience.