Thankfully, amidst all those rejection notices, Mr. His lack of initial publishing success may have been less about his ability as a writer and more to do with what he was writing about.

The slow dance through the ideas led to writing.” () His efforts to write were another “slow dance,” set to the tune of piles of rejection slips for his poems, short stories, and articles. Reading this literature, these books, led me to the canvas of my own humanity…My reading ability led me to books, which led me to ideas, which led to more books and more ideas. “I found, stumbled upon, was led to, or was given great literature. Myers shares his own reading history, beginning with his mother, who struggled to read, following along as she pointed to and read each word of the romance novels she loved. The encounters readers have with certain characters or subject matter found in these books may assist students with personal issues in ways that the people in their lives aren’t able to offer. The gateway experience is not limited to reading and writing revelations. I’ve always referred to books like these as gateway books-books that lead students to more books, to become readers of books (often for the first time), and often guide students to a greater understanding of and appreciation for the act of writing. Though Walter Dean Myers wrote over 100 books-picture books, novels, non-fiction-for young people, I want to focus on two, chosen because of the impact they had on me as a teacher and on my students as readers. (Visit for a brief but informative biography, complete bibliography, extensive award resume, and a video interview with Mr. If his name doesn’t ring any bells inside your head, then I will have to ring them for you. The articles, from two different sources, were about the death on July 1, 2014, of author Walter Dean Myers. Recently, I was sorting through a stack of clippings, some from Barry and some of my own, when I came across two articles I had been meaning to reread and perhaps even write about. My good friend Barry, a retired professor of English is the master of clipping and sending (real mail delivered by the USPS) articles for me to read. Nearby, I keep scissors to cut out articles that interest me or might be interesting to a friend or my son, away at college. True confession–I’m one of those people, the kind who still receives a newspaper ( The Oregonian, tossed onto my driveway, four days a week now instead of seven) and reads my magazines, after removing all the subscription cards, by holding them in my hands.

Fallen angels book walter dean myers