Weโre suggesting that [kids are] missing something if they donโt read but, actually, weโre condemning kids to a lesser life. If you had a sick patient, you would not try to entice them to take their medicine. You would tell them, โTake this or youโre going to die.โ We need to tell kids flat out: reading is not optional.
Walter Dean MyersIt is this language of values which I hope to bring to my books. . . . I want to bring values to those who have not been valued, and I want to etch those values in terms of the ideal. Young people need ideals which identify them, and their lives, as central . . . guideposts which tell them what they can be, should be, and indeed are.
Walter Dean MyersWhat did I do? I walked into a drugstore to look for some mints, and then I walked out. What was wrong with that? I didn't kill Mr. Nesbitt.
Walter Dean MyersI read a lot of comic books and any kind of thing I could find. One day, a teacher found me. She grabbed my comic book and tore it up. I was really upset, but then she brought in a pile of books from her own library. That was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Walter Dean Myers