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popgoesbitty's review against another edition
5.0
I've read this book 4 times, as I taught it to a handful of 8th grade classes. An excellent read for young adults and kids of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Attention grabbing, but retains its depth. Makes you laugh and cry with the turn of a page. Walter Dean Myers was a treasure.
popgoesbitty's review against another edition
5.0
I've read this book 4 times, as I taught it to a handful of 8th grade classes. An excellent read for young adults and kids of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Attention grabbing, but retains its depth. Makes you laugh and cry with the turn of a page. Walter Dean Myers was a treasure.
afoley's review against another edition
1.0
I had to read it for school. I am not a fan of autobiographies, so I did not enjoy it. It didn't make sense to me why we read this in ELA, because I thought you were supposed to read great works of literature like Great Expectations and To Kill a Mockingbird. Oh, well. I hope some other people out there enjoyed this book more than I did, because I am just resentful of being forced to read it.
onarosebeam's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism and Racism
debz57a52's review against another edition
3.0
I think I'd mark this a 2.5 for me, but a 3.5 for my students.
Walter Dean Myers certainly had an interesting childhood, moved from family member to family member, raised both supervised and unsupervised, loving reading and writing but hiding his talents from those who loved him.
Infused throughout this book are comments about how he learned to read and write, and how he struggled to stay out of trouble at school despite his intelligence - probably stories that similar students would appreciate. Similarly, the book is very simply written, with shorter sentences, unchallenging vocabulary (for junior high and above), and little in flowery language. Myers is very concrete with his description and the pacing takes things slowly, which I felt was dry and boring but struggling readers may appreciate.
Walter Dean Myers certainly had an interesting childhood, moved from family member to family member, raised both supervised and unsupervised, loving reading and writing but hiding his talents from those who loved him.
Infused throughout this book are comments about how he learned to read and write, and how he struggled to stay out of trouble at school despite his intelligence - probably stories that similar students would appreciate. Similarly, the book is very simply written, with shorter sentences, unchallenging vocabulary (for junior high and above), and little in flowery language. Myers is very concrete with his description and the pacing takes things slowly, which I felt was dry and boring but struggling readers may appreciate.
angeljkay's review against another edition
4.0
Read the whole book to look for chapters to serve as memoir mentor text for 7th graders, but I got lost in the story. Any suggestions?
ranaelizabeth's review against another edition
4.0
Oddly enough, this memoir reminded me a lot of Harriet the Spy. Both of them walk around their neighborhoods (Harlem and Upper East Side, respectively) and record what they see. Writing, for both Myers and Harriet, are releases and ways to deal with depression and and not fitting in culturally.
And yes, I know that Harriet is not a real person.
And yes, I know that Harriet is not a real person.
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