Bad Boy

1.)
Myers, W. (2001). Bad Boy. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 214 pp.

Memoir, African American Author, Coming of Age,
Author has won: 1994 ALA Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults, 1994 ALAN Award for outstanding contributions to the field of young adult literature.

2.)
Bad Boy is a story of a young man finding his path in life. Strong and smart, Walter struggles to discover is place in a society that does not value his intelligence. Growing up in Harlem during the 1940’s and 1950’s, Myers relates a tale of the struggle of a young black man who wants to do more with his life than work in the garment district. Myers is an avid reader and writer and a relatively good basketball player with a quick temper. When he joins the Special Progress class he realizes for the first time that he has an opportunity to become something more. However, as he begins Stuyvesant High, Myers begins to realize that the opportunities that await many of his white classmates do not await him. This book is a reflection on how Myers coped with that realization and how he was a “bad boy.”

3.)
Myers delivers an eloquent memoir about how he became the writer he is today. He shows how he struggled with poverty, racism, and a general lack of opportunity. While he adoptive mother and father play an important role in his development, the strongest character in the novel is Walter. His insights belong to those of a matured adult who is proud of struggles to become accomplished. To a young reader, this book may make all the petty worries in the life of a teenager seem small. Walter’s father can not read, Walter is constantly under the threat of being caught by a gang, and reminded that his family will not be able to afford to send him to college if he could get accepted as an African-American. In this book, Myers addresses the complicated issues of racism and poverty with the experience of a talented children’s author.

4.)
I would select this book for a possible read aloud. Also, if I had a group of students who had read and enjoyed Myer’s other books (Monster) I would suggest this book for a literature circle- knowing that the reading level is higher and I would have to provide them with guidance. Also, throughout the book, Myers drops the names of some books he liked when he was reading. I took some ideas for future reading from him and I would hope my students would too.

5.)
This book is at a higher level than many of Myer’s other works that classmates have reviewed. I would recommend this book to 8th grade and up. I believe that older students who have not read anything by Myers in a while can still get a lot out of this particular book.

6.)
As I was reading the book, I kept thinking of Anne Petry’s The Street. I was reminded of how everything seems to come down on Lutie and then she finally exploded and kills someone with a candlestick. Well, Walter did not explode like Lutie- he acted out consistently. That is why he was a “bad boy.” I kept this train of thought going until Myers said he read The Street and hated it. Yes, there are many behaviors in this book that I would not want my students to mirror but that fact would not keep me from suggesting it to anyone. Yes, Walter skips school but he skips school to sit in Central Park and read. If I grew up in Harlem, I probably would have done the same thing. At the end of the book I was proud of him for his success (kind of jealous actually). I would recommend this to adults for pleasure reading as well.