Walter Dean Myers: “Reading is not optional”

Author Walter Dean Myers has been named “National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature” by the Library of Congress. 

In an interview this morning on NPR, Myers spoke of the challenges he faced growing up in Harlem as a boy who loved to read but felt he had to hide his books to fit in. Rejecting the idea that reading books is simply an “adjunct” to life, a pastime that we could easily do without, Myers asserted that “to do well in life, you have to read well.” The slogan he’ll promote in his new capacity as Ambassador is “Reading Is Not Optional.” You go, Mr. Myers! 

The Imperatore Library has 20 titles available from Walter Dean Myers’s many books, including Monster (1999) and Sunrise over Fallujah (2008). Take a look in our online catalog and check out a book today!