Bad Boy: A Memoir

Reach for this memoir when your teenager feels like they are living two different lives, perhaps hiding their intellectual interests to fit in or struggling with a quick temper. It is the perfect choice for a child who feels misunderstood by the school system or who is beginning to notice how race and class might shape their future opportunities. Walter Dean Myers shares his journey from a street-fighting boy in Harlem to one of the most celebrated authors in YA literature. He explores the tension between being a tough kid on the outside and a sensitive reader on the inside, dealing with themes of identity, belonging, and the realities of urban life in the 1940s and 50s. Parents will appreciate the honest, secular approach to growing up in a working-class home, providing a realistic roadmap for finding one's voice despite systemic obstacles.