His 1988 novel Fallen Angels is one of the books most frequently challenged in the U.S. He won the Coretta Scott King Award for African-American authors five times. He wrote more than one hundred books including picture books and nonfiction. A tough childhood led him to writing and his school teachers would encourage him in this habit as a way to express himself. He was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, but was raised in Harlem. Even in this country the military can take an eighteen year old boy and turn him into a killer in a matter of months.Walter Dean Myers (born Walter Milton Myers Aug– July 1, 2014) was an American writer of children's books best known for young adult literature. Wars abound-intentional starvation, and the killing of men, women, and children-and these atrocities are sometimes comitted by farmers, laborers, and other ordinary people. But for those of you who think killing is impossible to imagine, just look around the world. This might sound strange, but while killing another person is not natural, it's not that difficult to learn. People have been armed and violent for too long. It's handguns that make living in the inner city so lethal today. But with the influx of thousands and thousands of handguns, you have a new brand of gunslinger among the young. The codes of conduct on the streets of our slums have always been hard, cold, and unforgiving. Many of the children of America are conditioned early to kill, and, more frighteningly to die, for what an outsider might see as a trivial cause. It takes years of preparation to commit murder, to be willing to die for a corner, a color, or a leather jacket. Directions: After you read the excerpt, I want you to answer the following questions in your writing notebook or type and print from Microsoft Word: 1) What is the author saying about the lives of American kids today? 2) Does Canada believe violence is taught or that we're born to be violent? 3) How do you feel? Do you think people are born violent or are they taught to be that way? 4) Can you think of a solution to the problem? How can we get violence among teenagers to decrease?Įxcerpt: "If you wonder how a fourteen year old could shoot another fourteen year old in the head, or how boys can do drive by shootings and then go home to dinner, you need to know you don't get there in a day, a week or a month. An excerpt is when you read a small piece of a book or article. Below, you will read an excerpt from a book called, "Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun" by Geoffrey Canada. Think about Steve Harmon, who was a quiet, shy kid who got caught up in a robbery that led to a murder.
Think about Osvaldo Cruz and the violence he experienced as a gang member.
Jelley here! In "Monster," by Walter Dean Myers, we're coming across characters who are young and violent and growing up in Harlem. Choose a vocabulary word that we would have to figure out based on context clues. Now, I want you to create two sentences of your own. Write your answers into your writing notebook and explain how you came up with the meaning of the word.ġ) King is BLEARY-EYED and smokes a joint as he talks.Ģ) It was a VICIOUS fight and the minister had to call in the guards.ģ) Miss O'Brien saying things looked bad was really DISCOURAGING.Ĥ) What are you, a PESSIMIST, always hoping for the worst?ĥ) After the shooting took place, the neighborhood was in absolute DISMAY. Directions: Read the following sentences that have been pulled from the book, "Monster." I want you to figure out what the word in Capital Letters means based on the clues in the sentence. For example, when you read the sentence, "The garbage was FETID, and stunk up the hallway." What do you think the word FETID means, based on the clues in the sentence? Answer in the comments section and explain why you think that's the answer. Context clues are when we try to figure out what a word means based on clues in the sentence. In order to figure out what the word means, we have to use context clues. Hello, make sure you've finished typing your Flashback essay! As we read "Monster," by Walter Dean Myers, we come across vocabulary words that we don't know the meaning of.