Bad Boy: A Memoir

Walter Dean Myers discussed his book Bad Boy: A Memoir, published by HarperCollins Children’s Books. The book is about his childhood while growing up in Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s. Mr. Myers said he had a reputation in school as a “bad boy” with a speech problem, but had a secret love of reading and writing. He also talked about the lack of books written by black authors for children, which was one of his motivations for writing books about black boys and communities like Harlem. Mr. Myers answered questions from members of the audience at the end of the program. close