After a lucrative writing career and seeing one of his sons, Christopher Myers, become an accomplished author and illustrator himself, Walter Dean Myers died after a short illness in a hospital in Manhattan at the age of 76. His 1988 Vietnam War novel Fallen Angels is recognized by the American Library Association as one of the most frequently targeted books for censorship in America due to its unflinching depiction of the Vietnam War. recognizing African-American authors, five different times. He won the prestigious Coretta Scott King Award. Myers went on to spend the next 45 years writing books, publishing more than 100 children’s books, young adult novels, and nonfiction books. Myers’s first published book was the children’s book Where Does the Day Go? in 1968, which won a Council on Interracial Books for Children Award.

Remembering his teacher’s words, Myers began spending his evening writing after finishing his day labor on construction sites. However, after coming across the works of African-American author James Baldwin, Myers felt encouraged to write about the experience of being a black person in mid-20th century America. Myers was an avid reader throughout, but bothered by the fact that all of his literary heroes were white people. True to his teacher’s prediction, Myers dropped out of high school as soon as he turned 17 and joined the army, serving for three years and exiting shortly before the start of the Vietnam War. One of Myers high school teachers sensed that he would not graduate but knew that he was a gifted reader and writer, and encouraged him to continue writing no matter what he did or where he went. Although he was an avid reader, Myers struggled both socially and academically, in part due to a speech impediment which made him a frequent target for bullies, which in turn earned Myers a reputation for frequently getting into fistfights. His childhood was dominated by his church and his local neighborhood.

Myers eventually changed his middle name from Milton to Dean to honor their parentage. When his mother died when he was two years old, Myers went to live with Florence Dean, his biological father’s first wife, and her husband Herbert Dean, who raised him in Harlem, New York City. Walter Dean Myers was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1937.

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