Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Searching... Dallas Public Library | + 811.54 M99 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Independence Public Library | J 811.54 MYERS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Jefferson Public Library | J 811.54 MYERS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | 811 Myers | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Newberg Public Library | 811.54 MYERS | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Woodburn Public Library | 811.54 MYERS | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
"They took the road in Waycross Georgia / Skipped over the tracks in East St. Louis / Took the bus from Holly Springs / Hitched a ride from Gee's Bend / Took the long way through Memphis / The third deck down from Trinidad / A wrench of the heart from Goree Island / A wrench of the heart from Goree Island / To a place called Harlem." So begins this exquisite poem about the poet's childhood home. With a few deft strokes, Myers and Myers paint a picture of a cradle of American culture. The text calls on all Walter's powers as a narrative writer, a poet, and historian, as it moves from the ancient history of the people of Harlem, through their traditions of family, home, and religion, to their turn of the century Renaisaance and their contemporary despairs, joys, and hopes. A truly remarkable book.
Author Notes
Walter Dean Myers was born on August 12, 1937 in Martinsberg, West Virginia. When he was three years old, his mother died and his father sent him to live with Herbert and Florence Dean in Harlem, New York. He began writing stories while in his teens. He dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Army at the age of 17. After completing his army service, he took a construction job and continued to write.
He entered and won a 1969 contest sponsored by the Council on Interracial Books for Children, which led to the publication of his first book, Where Does the Day Go? During his lifetime, he wrote more than 100 fiction and nonfiction books for children and young adults. His works include Fallen Angels, Bad Boy, Darius and Twig, Scorpions, Lockdown, Sunrise Over Fallujah, Invasion, Juba!, and On a Clear Day. He also collaborated with his son Christopher, an artist, on a number of picture books for young readers including We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart and Harlem, which received a Caldecott Honor Award, as well as the teen novel Autobiography of My Dead Brother.
He was the winner of the first-ever Michael L. Printz Award for Monster, the first recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults. He also won the Coretta Scott King Award for African American authors five times. He died on July 1, 2014, following a brief illness, at the age of 76.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr all levelsÄThe picture book poem Harlem (Scholastic, 1997) is stirringly recreated in a stunning video which captures the spirit of the collaboration between illustrator Christopher Myers and author Walter Dean Myers. The first portion of the video alternates live-action photography of Harlem street scenes with Christopher Myers' collage illustrations which won Caldecott Honors in 1998. This segment is followed by Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis' reading of the poem accompanied by the illustrations alone. The relaxed pace of the video allows viewers to savor the bold, richly textured images and vibrant colors as the poetry is interpreted by Davis and Dee. The bluesy instrumental background is a perfect musical backdrop for the mix of poetry and illustration. The music underscores the poetry and helps to recreate the spirit of this unique neigborhood with its hope-filled history, culture and heritage of art, literature and music. The quality of the visual recreations of the illustrations is excellent. This is a superb accompaniment to the picture book, and will be a wonderful addition to school and public library collections.ÄNancy L. Chu, Western Illinois University, Macomb (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
This heartfelt tribute captures the many moods of Harlem, bringing to life a very real urban community steeped in cultural history. Myers begins his poem with the words "Harlem was a promise/ Of a better life, of a place where a man didn't/ Have to know his place/ Simply because he was/ Black"; this cautious optimism informs the text. Children play on sidewalks and the smell of barbecue lingers. But there is sadness too-a "fleet of funeral cars" or "endless depths of pain/ Singing a capella on the street corners." Throughout, the past overlays the present, like a legacy passed down ("A journey on the A train/ That started on the banks of the Niger/ And has not ended"). Dreams dreamed in present-day Harlem are a part of this continuum, and music is the means of expression. The text pays homage to the "weary blues that Langston knew/ And Countee sung"; to Sunday night gospel music and Lady Day on the radio. Christopher Myers, who previously illustrated his father's Shadow of the Red Moon, delivers bold collages that are both stark and lyrical. People stare out of his paintings, challenging or appealing to the viewer, or lost in reverie. Rough cut paper and daubed paint combine to create a raw immediacy. This is by no means an easy book-most of the allusions, if not the poem's significance itself, will need to be explained to children-but its artistic integrity is unmistakable; the effort its presentation to young readers may require is worth it. Ages 5-up. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Myers's paean to Harlem sings, dances, and swaggers across the pages, conveying the myriad sounds on the streets, from the voices of Africa and the Caribbean to the 'A' trains mixing and mingling in their own special rhythms. Christopher Myers's collages add an edge to his father's words, vividly bringing to life the sights and scenes of Lenox Avenue. From HORN BOOK 1997, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A hot new artist and his distinguished father fashion a picture book with a stirring sound at its center. Walter Dean Myers (Slam!, p. 1536, etc.) gives poetry a jazz backbeat to tell the story of Harlem, the historic center of African-American culture in New York City. To newcomers from Waycross, Georgia, from East St. Louis, from Trinidad, ``Harlem was a promise.'' Listing the streets and the churches, naming Langston and Countee, Shango and Jesus, the text is rich with allusion. The imagery springs to life at once: ``Ring-a-levio warriors/Stickball heroes''; ``a full lipped, full hipped/Saint washing collard greens . . . Backing up Lady Day on the radio.'' A strong series of images of ink and gouache capture the beauty of faces, from the very old to very young, from golden to blue- black. Christopher Myers sets his scenes to match the streets, fire escapes, jazz clubs, and kitchens of Harlem, and makes them by turns starkly stylized as an Egyptian mask or sweet as a stained glass window. Put this on the shelf next to Chris Raschka's Charlie Parker Played Be-Bop (1992) and see if anyone can sit still when the book is read aloud. (Picture book. 5+)
Booklist Review
Gr. 6^-12. The two Myerses--author and artist, father and son--celebrate Harlem, which they perceive both as a city and a "promise of a better life," in quite different but wonderfully complementary ways. The author views Harlem--where he grew up--as a symbol of African American aspiration; the artist shares a more concrete city composed of "colors loud enough to be heard." In a text that is as much song as poem, the author offers his impressionistic appreciation for a culture that is predominantly music-based, with its roots in "calls and songs and shouts" "first heard in the villages of Ghana/Mali/Senegal." In his hotly vibrant ink, gouache, and collage images, the artist shows us the textures of the city streets, the colors of "sun yellow shirts on burnt umber bodies," and even, it seems, the sounds the words themselves evoke. The very look of metaphorical moments is well served by the text, but it is Harlem as a visual experience that YAs will return to again and again, to admire and wonder at what is realized with truly extraordinary grace and power by this young artist of such wonderful promise. --Michael Cart