Synopses & Reviews
< p=""> Cameron: Deep inside, you know that whoever gets up in your face gets there because he knows you're nothing, and he knows that you know it too. <> < p=""> Carla: What I'm trying to do is to get by & ndash; & ndash; not even get over, just get by. <> < p=""> Leonard: I have bought a gaw& ndash; juss weapon. It lies beneath my bed like a secret lover, quiet, powerful, waiting to work my magic. <> < p=""> Statement of Fact: 17& ndash; year& ndash; old white male found dead in the aftermath of a shooting incident at Madison High School in Harrison County. <> < p=""> Conclusion: Death by self& ndash; inflicted wound. <> < p=""> Ages 12+<>
Synopsis
Cameron: "Deep inside, you know that whoever gets up in your face gets there because he knows you′re nothing, and he knows that you know it too."
Carla: "What I′m trying to do is to get by -- not even get over, just get by."
Leonard: "I have bought a gaw-juss weapon. It lies beneath my bed like a secret lover, quiet, powerful, waiting to work my magic."
Statement of Fact: 17-year-old white male found dead in the aftermath of a shooting incident at Madison High School in Harrison County.
Conclusion: Death by self-inflicted wound.
Ages 12+
Synopsis
The groundbreaking and widely praised novel about a school shooting, from the acclaimed author of Monster. Multiple narratives, a personal journal, and newspaper and police reports add perspective and pull readers into the story.
"Questions of guilt and innocence drive the plot and stay with the reader," said Hazel Rochman in a starred Booklist review. "Highly readable."
"A haunting story that uncovers the pain of several high school students," according to Teenreads.com. "It explores the tragedies of school violence and how the result of bullying can go to the most dramatic extreme. Myers has a gift for expressing the voices of his characters. Shooter is not a light read, but it will leave you reeling."
Synopsis
In this devastating novel, a school shooting shatters lives on both sides of the gun. Told from the point of view of of fourteen-year-old Gray Wilton, who killed four students at his high school, as he awaits his murder trial.
Synopsis
“A hard-hitting and eloquent look at the impact of bullying." -
School Library Journal New town, new school, new start. Thats what fourteen-year-old Gray Wilton believes. But it doesnt take long for him to realize that there are bullies in every school, and hes always their punching bag. Their abuses escalate until Gray feels trapped and alone. He has no power at all until he enters the halls of Greenford High School with his fathers semiautomatic in hand. Nancy Garden deftly explores the cruelty of bullying and its devastating effects. In this brutal, heartbreaking story, a school shooting shatters lives on both sides of the gun.
About the Author
Walter Dean Myers is the acclaimed author of
Monster, the first winner of the Michael L. Printz Award, a National Book Award Finalist, Coretta Scott King Honor Book, and Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book;
The Dream Bearer; Handbook for Boys; Bad Boy: A Memoir; and the Newbery Honor Books
Scorpions and
Somewhere in the Darkness. His picture books include Jane Addams Childrens Book Award winner
Patrol: An American Soldier In Vietnam, illustrated by Ann Grifalconi;
Dr. Martin Luther King: Ive Seen The Promised Land and
Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly, illustrated by Leonard Jenkins; and
Blues Journey and the Caldecott Honor Book
Harlem: A Poem, both illustrated by Christopher Myers. He helped establish the Walter Dean Myers Publishing Institute, part of the Langston Hughes Childrens Literature Festival, and makes frequent appearances with the National Basketball Associations "Read to Achieve" program. Mr. Myers lives with his family in Jersey City, New Jersey.
In His Own Words...
I am a product of Harlem and of the values, color, toughness and caring that I found there as a child.I learned my flat jump shot in the church basement and got my first kiss during recess at Bible school.I played the endless street games kids played in the pre-television days and paid enough attention to candy and junk food to dutifully alarm my mother.
From my foster parents, the Deans, I received the love that was ultimately to strengthen me, even when I had forgotten its source.It was my foster mother, a half Indian-half German woman, who taught me to read, though she herself was barely literate.
I had a speech difficulty but didn't view it as anything special.It wasn't necessary for me to be much of a social creature once I discovered books.Books took me, not so much to foreign lands and fanciful adventures, but to a place within myself that I have been constantly exploring ever since.
The George Bruce Branch of the public Library was my most treasured place.I couldn't believe my luck in discovering what I enjoyed most -- reading -- was free.And I was tough enough to carry the books home through the streets without too many incidents.
At sixteen it seemed a good idea to leave school, and so I did.On my seventeenth birthday I joined the army.After the army there were jobs -- some good, some bad, few worth mentioning.Leaving school seemed less like a good idea.
Writing for me has been many things.It was a way to overcome the hindrance of speech problems as I tried to reach out to the world.It was a way of establishing my humanity in a world that often ignores the humanity of those in less favored positions.It was a way to make a few extra dollars when they were badly needed.
What I want to do with the writing keeps changing, too.Perhaps I just get clearer in what it is I am doing.I'm sure that after I'm dead someone will lay it all out nicely.I'd hate to see what kind of biography my cat, Askia, would write about me.Probably something like "Walter Dean Myers had enormous feet, didn't feed me on time, and often sat in my favorite chair."At any rate, what I think I'm doing now is rediscovering the innocence of children that I once took for granted.I cannot relive it or reclaim it, but I can expose it and celebrate it in the books I write.I really like people -- I mean I really like people -- and children are some of the best people I know.
I've always felt it a little pretentious to write about yourself, but it's not too bad if you don't write too much.
-- Walter Dean Myers