What kind of person do you feel the author is? What makes you feel this way?
Because I finished Shooter "too quickly," I thought I'd use my second post to talk about the author, Walter Dean Myers. When I read a Myers book, I'm immediately struck by how compassionately he views his adolescent protagonists. Whether they are engaged in criminal activity or caught up in complex social confusion, Myers' protagonists are always written through a lens of deep humanity and compassion. In this PBS interview, the interviewer asks why Myers feels so strongly about literacy and helping children read. Myers says, "I'm telling them that their lives are worthwhile." Later, when he is asked whether he could be offering books that are "more positive," Myers wisely says that "the most positive thing I can give them is their own presence [in the novel]." Myers' personal story is so compelling (his own father never learned to read), and his characters are so beautifully written -- his books are always both entertaining and a powerful reminder to view all students through a lens of compassion and human vulnerabilty.
What a cool Vlog--not just a Blog anymore:) Have you ever read Bad Boy? It's Myers' memoir--made me rather sad when I read it because he does NOT speak highly of his teachers or experiences with school--
ReplyDeleteRosina--I've never read anything by Walter Dean Myers but I always hear good things. "Shooter" sounds like it would be difficult to read but like you said, he views his protagonists in such a positive way. I'm wondering how he does this, though and if something happened while he was growing up that has made him especially empathetic. Thank you for posting the interview, I love getting more insight into authors, especially YA authors!
ReplyDeleteRose--what I love about this post is that so often we do not take the time to actually stop and talk about the author. I can remember being in school and often we would skip over the author and placed value solely on the book. Thank you for not doing that! I love WDM and did one of my unit plans on him this summer. Great to use in the classroom--and most of his works are so relevant today!
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