Handbook for Boys

"Look, Jimmy, no matter what we talk about in the barbershop, it doesn't make sense that half the people who walk in there are busy messing their lives around, does it?" Duke asked. "According to Cap, everybody's going down the tubes," I said. "And according to me, some people are blowing their thing and some ain't. You know, I can't see dissing everybody." -- Excerpt "Myers is arguably one of the most important writers of children's books of our age. This glimpse into his own childhood is wonderfully valuable, fascinating, inspiring." -- Kirkus Reviews "Myers paints a fascinating picture of his childhood growing up in Harlem in the 1940s." -- Publishers Weekly "A superb memoir. A story full of funny anecdotes and tender moments. Young writers will find inspiration, while others may read the book as a straightforward account of a colorful, unforgettable childhood." -- School Library Journal Michael L. Printz award-winner and Margaret A. Edwards award-recipient, Walter Dean Myers is a six-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. He is the author of Handbook for Boys; Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam; Monster; Bad Boy: A Memoir; and the Newbery Honor books Scorpions and Somewhere in the Darkness.