New Releases by Walter Dean Myers

Drew Lawson knows basketball is taking him places. It has to, because his grades certainly aren''t. But lately his plan has run squarely into a pick. Coach''s new offense has made another player a star, and Drew won''t let anyone disrespect his game. Just as his team makes the playoffs, Drew must come up with something big to save his fading college prospects. It''s all up to Drew to find out just how deep his game really is.

The story of the Harlem Hellfighters is not simply one of victory in a war. . . . It is the story of men who acted as men, and who gave a good account of themselves when so many people thought, even hoped, that they would fail. What defines a true hero? The "Harlem Hellfighters," the African American soldiers of the 369th Infantry Regiment of World War I, redefined heroism -- for America, and for the world. At a time of widespread bigotry and racism, these soldiers put their lives on the line in the name of democracy. The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage is a portrait of bravery and honor. With compelling narrative and never-before-published photographs, Michael L. Printz Award winner Walter Dean Myers and renowned filmmaker Bill Miles deftly portray the true story of these unsung American heroes.

Vietnam. A young American soldier waits for his enemy, rifle in hand, finger on the trigger. He is afraid to move and yet afraid not to move. Gunshots crackle in the still air. The soldier fires blindly into the distant trees at an unseen enemy. He crouches and waits -- heart pounding, tense and trembling, biting back tears. When will it all be over? Walter Dean Myers joined the army on his seventeeth birthday, at the onset of American involvement in Vietnam, but it was the death of his brother in 1968 that forever changed his mind about war. In a gripping and powerful story-poem, the award-winning author takes readers into the heart and mind of a young soldier in an alien land who comes face-to-face with the enemy. Strikingly illustrated with evocative and emotionally wrenching collages by Caldecott Honor artist Ann Grifalconi, this unforgettable portrait captures one American G.L''s haunting experience.

As the Fens attack his home in New City, fifteen-year-old Jon is sent into the Wilderness with other young Okalians to search for the Ancient City, but what he finds is something very different.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is one of the most celebrated figures of the twentieth century. A crusader for nonviolent social justice, he led African Americans in their demands for equality through peaceful protests during one of the most tumultuous times in recent history. Set against key moments in the civil rights movement, here is the story of the powerful, eloquent spiritual leader and his belief that nonviolence could be used to overcome racial discrimination. Walter Dean Myers''s moving narrative and Leonard Jenkins''s compelling paintings portray a vivid and striking image of the man who moved American society closer to the ideals of freedom and fairness. Dr. King''s dream that all Americans would be judged by their individual actions and character is one we still cherish today.

Cuando Jamal se convierte en el lider de los Escorpiones, una pandilla de Harlem en Nueva York, descubre que sus enemigos le tratarán con respeto si tiene una pistola -- hasta que sucede una tragedia.

Sixteen-year-old Crystal knows she''s blessed. She is drop-dead gorgeous and in the beginning stages of a glamorous career as a model in New York City. At first, modeling is exciting. But soon, her life becomes less and less about her, and more and more about her body. Crystal wonders if her new life is worth giving up everything -- her friends, her beliefs, and her self-respect.

An ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults New Bonus Content: -Q&A with Walter Dean Myers -Teaser chapter from On a Clear Day -Excerpt from Hoops The first week of his senior year, everything changed. That’s when Mack met Kitty. She hadn’t finished the sonnet she wrote for him, but she had finished Mack. From that minute on, he was stupid in love. That’s just Kitty and Mack. But everybody on the block has a story to tell. A salty, wrenchingly honest collection of stories set on one block of 145th Street. We get to know the oldest resident; the cop on the beat; fine Peaches and her girl, Squeezie; Monkeyman; and Benny, a fighter on the way to a knockout. We meet Angela, who starts having prophetic dreams after her father is killed and Big Joe, who wants a bang-up funeral while he''s still around to enjoy it. Some of these stories are private, and some are the ones behind the headlines. In each one, characters jump off the page and pull readers right into the mix on 1-4-5.

Malcolm X lived in difficult times - when some thought that black people were inferior to white people. But Malcolm believed that black people should stand up for their rights and he preached this belief everywhere he went. His message became popular because it was one of hope and pride. But it also became dangerous, because some people didn''t agree with him. In 1965, one of these people shot and killed him. Even though his life was cut short by hatred, Malcolm X''s ideas still affect people of all races. Here is his amazing story. An ALA Notable Children''s Book

Biography of Omo''ba (aka Princess) Aina (Sarah Forbes Bonetta (later Davies)) (1843-1880), Goddaughter of Queen Victoria.

A poem celebrating the people, sights, and sounds of Harlem. This book is an impressionistic appreciation of Harlem & its culture as seen through the eyes of author Walter Dean Myers & his artist son, Christopher.

Long ago, when the earth had not settled in its turning and the stars had not found their places in the night sky, there were three kingdoms. The first was the kingdom of the forest, ruled by the mighty Elephant. The second was the kingdom of the sea, ruled by the ferocious Shark. And the third was the kingdom of the air, ruled by the powerful Hawk. And then there were the People, who needed the forest and sea and air for survival. But they were small and weak--no match for the beast who dominated the kingdoms. Yet the People had a gift--the gift of storytelling. With powerful prose and bold illustrations, Walter Dean Myers and Ashley Bryan tell how the People used their gift to outwit the rulers of the three kingdoms, making this triumphant story one worth reading again and again.

Join acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers in a heartwarming celebration of African-American childhood in words and pictures. Sharing favorites from his collection of long-forgotten turn-of-the-century photographs, and punctuating them with his own moving poetry, Mr. Myers has created a beautiful album that reminds us that "the child in each of us is our most precious part."

Sixtee-year-old "Slam" Harris is counting on his noteworthy basketball talents to get him out of the inner city and give him a chance to succeed in life, but his coach sees things differently.

ALA best book for young adults, This is the true story of one family, captured, shackled and brought to this country from Africa.

A collection of paintings by Jacob Lawrence chronicling the liberation of Haiti in 1804 under the leadership of General Toussaint L''Ouverture.

A photographic history that traces the lives of African-Americans over the course of 150 years, depicting the many roles they have taken and the victories they have achieved.

History has made me an African American. It is an Africa that I have come from, and an America that I have helped to create. Since they were first brought as captives to Virginia, the people who would become African Americans have struggled for freedom. Thousands fought for the rights of all Americans during the Revolutionary War, and for their own rights during the Civil War. On the battlefield, through education, and through their creative genius, they have worked toward one goal: that the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness be denied no one. Fired by the legacy of men and women like Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, Ida B. Wells, and George Latimer, the struggle continues today. Here is African-American history, told through the stories of the people whose experiences have shaped and continue to shape the America in which we live.

Jimmy hasn''t seen his father in nine years.

Wanted: One low-lifed, sniveling scoundrel Artemis Bonner wants to set the record straight. He''s just arrived in Tombstone, Arizona, to avenge the murder of his uncle Ugly Ned Bonner. And if he happens to stumble across the gold mine his uncle described on his deathbed, then would be just fine, too. The murderous scalawag Catfish Grimes and his equally odious campaignion Lucy Featherdip are on the loose. They''re desperate to find the gold mine and claim it for themselves as Artemis and his sidekick, Frolic, chase the pair from Mexico to the Alaskan Territory and back again. Artemis and Catfish are headed for a showdown in front of the Bird Cage Saloon...the exact spot where Uncle Ugly met his Untimely Demise. Here''s the whole story -- and the Truth as well.

If you were looking for a real ghetto dump, you couldn’t beat The Stratford Arms. There was Askia Ben Kenobi throwing karate chops upstairs, Petey Darden making booze downstairs, and Mrs. Brown grieving for Jack Johnson, who’d died for the third time in a month—and not a rent payer in the bunch. Still, when Paul Williams and the Action Group got the Arms for one dollar, they thought they had it made. But when their friend Chris was arrested for stealing stereos and Dean’s dog started biting fire hydrants and Gloria started kissing, being a landlord turned out to be a lot more work than being a kid.

Stuff doesn''t know anyone when he first moves to 116th Street. But all of that changes when he meets Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Gloria. Stuff and the gang grow close that eventful year, and nothing is ever like it again. That''s the year modern science gets them all in jail; Stuff falls in love and is unfaithful; and Cool Clyde and Fast Sam win the dance contest-almost.

Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.

Motown lives in a burned-out building one floor above the rats, searching out jobs every day, working his muscles every night, keeping strong, surviving. Didi lives in her cool dream bubble, untouched by the Harlem heat that beats down on her brother until only drugs can soothe him. Didi escapes, without needles, in her tidy plans and stainless visions, etchings of ivycovered colleges where her true life will begin. Didi can survive inside her own safe mind, until Motown steps into her real world and makes it bearable. Together they can stand the often brutal present. What about the future?

Seventeen-year-old Lonnie Jackson sees the city-wide basketball Tournament of Champions as a possible escape from Harlem but fears the pressures that have sidelined his coach, Cal.

Fourteen-year-old Stephen, his new foster brother, his friends are sentenced to help out at an old age home for the summer after Stephen is caught writing graffiti on a train.