![]() ![]() "With my writing, what I want to do is humanize the young people I write about," Myers says. Prom queen characters are replaced by high school dropouts or young soldiers, vampires by children growing up in single-parent homes. The author of 104 children's and young adult books, Myers doesn't write your average teen drama. He frequently pushes himself out of his seat to walk across the room and pull one of his many books off the shelf. ![]() Three large, wooden bookshelves take over the office wall behind him. Tall and casually dressed in light jeans and an untucked, green-collared shirt, Myers sits in a large leather chair at his home in New Jersey. Why abortion fight isn’t over if Roe is overturned If what I read doesn't reflect my life – whether I'm gay or Latino or on welfare – doesn't that really mean that my life is not valuable?" "But when they read a book, so often it's not about their lives. ![]() "These kids are looking for welcoming stories," Myers says. But his books exemplify another important idea: To get kids and teens reading, create characters they can identify with. He encourages adults to become mentors and parents and others to read to children. Today Myers is traveling the country as the 2012 Library of Congress national ambassador for young people's literature, promoting literacy and starting candid conversations about what he describes as "a real crisis": More and more kids – especially those from poor and minority families – can't read. "He said the most difficult part of his job was to humanize his client in the eyes of the jury," Mr. But it was his conversation with a defense lawyer that really resonated. When Walter Dean Myers was researching "Monster," his book about a teenager in juvenile detention, he conducted interviews with everyone from teen inmates to prison guards. ![]()
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