THIS PAGE IS DESIGNED TO HELP STUDENTS WITH RESEARCHING FOR THEIR AUTHOR STUDY ON WALTER DEAN MYERS. THE INFORMATION ON THIS PAGE IS NOT FORMAL. THESE ARE JUST NOTES. THEY ARE NOT IN ANY PARTICULAR ORDER, NOR ARE THEY INTENDED TO BE YOUR ONE-STOP SOURCE FOR INFORMATION.
I HAVE BEGUN THIS PAGE BY UPLOADING LINKS AND INFORMATION THAT I FEEL MAY BE HELPFUL TO SOMEONE WHO IS A BEGINNER WHEN IT COMES TO RESEARCHING A TOPIC OR A PERSON. I WILL ADD THINGS AS TIME GOES ON. I WILL ALSO ADD ANYTHING I FEEL IS USEFUL/HELPFUL THAT IS SENT TO ME BY STUDENTS. THIS PAGE SHOULD BE INTERACTIVE, NOT JUST FROM ME TO YOU... GOOD LUCK ON YOUR PROJECT.
THE ROUGH DRAFT IS DUE ON MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2010 (THE DAY YOU RETURN FROM CHRISTMAS BREAK). THIS ASSIGNMENT IS REPLACING YOUR WINTER PACKET FOR LANGUAGE ARTS. PLEASE USE YOUR TIME WISELY.
YOUR PAPER SHOULD BE AN IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF WALTER DEAN MYERS BASED ON ALL OF THE INFORMATION YOU CAN GATHER ABOUT HIM AND HIS LIFE, AS WELL AS ALL YOU CAN INFER ABOUT HIM FROM READING HIS BOOKS AND STORIES. ALTHOUGH YOU WILL READ SEVERAL SUMMARIES, YOU SHOULD ALSO HAVE AT LEAST ONE NOVEL AND SEVERAL SHORT STORIES THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTAND AND CAN DISCUSS.
| This is an additional (possibly easier to understand) outline to assist you with ensuring your project is complete and flawless... There is also a sample cover sheet included on this document. |
CLICK HERE for an excellent resource for anyone who is reading, read, or wants to research Scorpions or The Glory Field (http://litplans.com/authors/Walter_Dean_Myers.html)
http://www.walterdeanmyers.net/bio.html WDM has a short autobiographical sketch on this webpage
http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/myersw Short interviews with Walter Dean Myers
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780440967842-1 Synopsis and summary of The Outside Shot (sequel to Hoops) and a biographical sketch of the author.
http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/myersw short video interview and more biographical information on Walter Dean Myers
http://www.powells.com/s?author=Walter%20Dean%20Myers this is a list of books by WDM. Click on a book for its summary.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4722869.Dope_Sick this is this latest work by WDM (that I see...) The title is Dope Sick, and I plan to read it over the holiday break.
http://kidsreads.com/authors/au-myers-walter-dean.asp this site was added by Joshua Goodwin. it has biographical info and is very easy to read.
comminfo.rutgers.edu/professional-development/childlit/myers.html very good source of various types of information related to WDM, also added by Joshua Goodwin. take extra special note to the section entitled SOURCES ON WALTER DEAN MYERS. these are books that you can go to for more information on WDM
(...great source, Josh) 
The following four sites were added by Olabisi Omotoso. Thank you.
http://aalbc.com/authors/walter1.htm excellent quotes on this page, as well as more books and information
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/walter-dean-myers-dlb/ this bio should help also. It’s free if you click “go to next section” and not “Read the rest…” the free part is 5 web pages (approx 10 paragraphs)
http://www.indiana.edu/~reading/ieo/bibs/myers.html the links on the top of this page may prove to be very helpful. However, the majority of the inf (what’s below the links) is a little over your head. That information is for college students working on a collegiate or graduate level paper. I would strongly suggest ignoring anything below the set of links on top
http://teenreads.com/authors/au-myers-walterdean.asp excellent, concise, and easy to read
(...way to help out, Olabisi)
...the following is an example of a summary you might come across. the highlighted parts are what we used in class to make inferences about the author and connections to other texts.
Shooter
Walter Dean Myers
Cameron, Carla, and Len were fascinated (for different reasons) with guns and target shooting at the Patriots' club range until the day Len brought his Kalashnikov rifle, his AR-18, and his Ruger pistol to school, and shot and killed football jock Brad Williams, and then himself. Here is yet another school shooting story that begins with bullying and ends with disaster--a type that is becoming almost a sub-genre of YA fiction. Yet Walter Dean Myers, winner of many awards for his young adult novels, brings freshness and new anguish to this familiar tale (and growing social problem) of unstable victim tormented by bullies to homicidal rage. Following the example of his own masterwork Monster, Myers uses different perspectives in the aftermath of the "incident" to reveal the characters and to tell the story: interviews with Cameron and Carla by The Harrison County School Safety Committee, newspaper reports, a police report, Len's handwritten "die-ary" of his deranged thoughts, and finally, a grim medical examiner's report. The contrasts and contradictions in these various perspectives challenge readers to produce their own versions of why Cameron and Carla became Len's followers and what could have prevented this tragedy and others like it in real life. (ages 12 and up) --Patty Campbell
