Walter Dean Myers

"In Memory to Award winning Author Walter Dean Myers"

Aug. 12, 1937 - July 1, 2014

 



Walter Dean Myers, the best-selling children’s book author who story often depicted the harsh lives of young people died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 76.

Myers was a three-time National Bok Award nominee, received the Coretta Scott King Book Award for African-American fiction five times and from 2012 to 2013 served as national ambassador for young people’s literature, a position created in part by the Library of Congress.

"I didn't know I was going to be a writer," Myers said in an interview with Scholastic Books after his book Scorpions was published in 1988.

"In fact, I didn't know that there was such a job as an author,” Myers said. “No one really encouraged me to write, it was just something I loved to do."

Myers, who wrote more than 100 books, credited his foster father for instilling him a work ethic within him.

"What I really have is the discipline to work all the time," he said in an interview with the Sacramento Bee. "I finish one project, and I'm ready to immediately start the next."

 Late in his career, he took up writing about America's wars, in books such as "Sunrise over Fallujah" After watching his father, brother and son fight in WWII, Vietnam, and Iraq, respectively, Myers stated that he wanted to reach “young people who would be fighting this war, and who would, in the future, be making the hard decisions about our country engaging in wars, to be conscious of what war is really about”.

As he got older and the world around him was changing, especially after the election of the first African American president, Barack Obama, it bothered him how scarcely characters of color were depicted in literature for children and teens. In 2013, according to one study, only 93 of the 3,200 children's books published in the U.S. were about black people. Myers believed that the invisibility of people of color in literature discouraged kids from reading.

 "When do you plan to stop writing books?" his young readers once asked. “I plan to retire," Myers answered, "seven minutes before I die." Myers was said to write 7 – 10 pages at least 5 days a week for the last thirty years. This clearly explains how he has over 100 books to his credited.

Although he has passed on, Myers’ legacy will live forever. He’s someone who transcended literature and became important to a culture, and he is a shining example of what writers should strive to be.

 

"I think it's difficult for young people to acknowledge being smart, to knowledge being a reader. I see kids who are embarrassed to read books. They're embarrassed to have people see them doing it."

Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myer’s complete bibliography

The Food for Thought of the Week!

 

The library is the temple of learning, and learning has liberated more people than all the wars in history.

Carl T. Rowan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Food for Thought of the Week!

 Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.


Maya Angelou

 

 

7th Annual Festival @ Parkwest Town Center

 

 

 

This Saturday come on down 52nd & Jefferson Streets (down the street from the old Georges Institute library), from noon until 4:00pm for the 7th Annual Festival @ ParkWest Town Center.

 Mrphillylibrarian will have a table set up providing Free giveaways plus sharing information with the community about the awesome services that The Free Library of Philadelphia offers especially the highly anticipated “2014 Summer Reading Program”.

 The Festival is an annual expression of appreciation, bringing business and community together, in celebration of the collaborative efforts that contributed to the development of ParkWest Town Center.

 See you there !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 



Maya Angelou: The World's Griot

 

Maya Angelou: The World's Griot

Photo credit: Biography.com

Maya Angelou 1928-2014

By: Marvin DeBose Jr.

In West African culture, the griots, storytellers who often employed the use of poetry and music, have historically been seen as some of the most highly valued members of society. These people were seen as walking history books, full of lessons to impart upon a village. Maya Angelou was a product of this rich tradition.

For most people, simply hearing that name, “Maya Angelou”, brings words to mind such as, “Wisdom” and “understanding”.Her presence was associated with poise, and grace, and her words were filled with truth and love.

Although many people simply associate her with her countless insightful quotes and thought-provoking poetry, what made Maya Angelou truly remarkable were not just the beautiful, poetic words which she spoke, it was the rich life which she lived.

Born in 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri, but raised in Stamps, Arkansas, Angelou, born Marguerite Ann Johnson, lived the life of a true renaissance woman.

In her early life, Angelou was widely known for her immense talent in the performing arts. She was renowned calypso performer, which is a form of Afro-Caribbean dance and music and also spent time working as an actress and a playwright, who toured internationally starring in shows such as“Porgy and Bess” and writing plays such as “Georgia, Georgia”.

Angelou also worked internationally as a human rights activist, working with Martin Luther King Jr in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as well as with Malcolm X in the Organization of African Unity.

Angelou would also spend years living in Ghana, working as a freelance journalist.

Most notably, Angelou was a world-renowned poet and author. Her thought-provoking writings touched on controversial topics like race and gender, as well as universal themes such as love and parenthood. She is seen as one of the most significant writers in American literature. Her raw, yet profound autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, was ranked by TIME magazine as being one of the top 100 most influential books written in the English language.

Although she has departed from us in the physical form, her words, her wisdom and her spirit live within the hearts and minds of people all over the world.

To many people, for some whom she didn't even know personally, Angelou was a mentor, a mother-figure, and an adviser. Oprah Winfrey commonly cites Angelou as her “mother/sister”. Even comedians such as Richard Pryor, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock were known to go to her home in North Carolina to seek her advice.

Angelou once even disciplined rapper Tupac Shakur, whom she worked with in the movie “Poetic Justice”. Angelou witnessed Shakur about to get into a fight on the movie set and she pulled him aside and brought him to tears by asking him, “When was the last time anyone told you how important you are?' Did you know people stood on auction blocks and were bought and sold so that you could stay alive today?'”

Moments like that are testaments to the fact that Angelou was much more than a few witty quotes online, it shows how she was much more than a poet, actor and a playwright. She was a leader whose example helped to bring out the best in other people.

There are many words which can be associated with Maya Angelou's remarkable legacy; however there is only one which suits her best:

“Phenomenal”.

Read more at http://www.themindofmarvin.com/2014/05/maya-angelou-worlds-griot.html#TMPoiDb8WkbqEoA3.99

Philly's Book Festival @ Overbrook Park Library

 

Philly's Own Omar Tyree & Marvin DeBose

Omar Tyree came back to West Philly & visited the Overbrook Park Library. He gave a powerful lecture on his career & the state of Urban Literature.

Hair Story-  Authors Lori L. Tharps, Ayanna Byrd  & Librarian  Marvin DeBose

 

Overbrook hosted Hair Story authors Ayana D. Byrd & Lori L. Tharps for Book Festival Week. Their book is a Must read!

 

 

 

Sneak Peek at New Release: "The Freedom Summer Murders by Don Mitchell"

 

New Release - Date April 29

 



Mitchell, Don. (2014) The Freedom Summer Murders. Hardback | Scholastic | ISBN -13:978-0545-477253 | $18.99 | 256 Pages

 The Freedom Summer Murder by Don Mitchell is the best complete book that I read on this subject of the brutal murders in Neshoba County, Mississippi , on June 21,1964 of  James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner  three civil right workers . The three had been working on the "Freedom Summer" campaign, attempting to register African Americans to vote.

The author does a great job of documenting the life’s and families of these three men before this tragic night. After reading the book I felt that I personally know these guys. This year is the 50th Anniversary of this tragic event! This book should be a great read for the teenagers in my Book club. Great Read!