Bad Boy: A Memoir- Multicultural

Bad Boy: A Memoir is the touching story of a young African-American boy's journey to adulthood. Walter Myers grew up in Harlem. Money was always an issue for his family and they never had much to spare. This memoir takes us on a trip through Walter's life. He was picked on at a young age because of a speech problem that he had, and is affected by this bullying from that point on. Walter got in many fights at school and had some other behavioral issues. A lot of these probably stemmed from the torture that he had previously endured from other students about his speech. He also is very close to his mother at the beginning of the story. All he wants to do is impress her. As the reader gets farther in to the book, they begin to realize that Walter and his mother are start to drift. This seems to be what happens to almost every child as they hit their teenage years. This book was very easy to relate to because Walter experiences much of the same things that almost every other child has to deal with at some point in their life. The only difference that Walter has is the fact that he also has to worry about financial situations and well as being discriminated against because of his race. Although Walter has some problems as he grows up, he ends up overcoming them and goes on to write this story about his life for others to be able to relate to. I like this book because it shows the readers how possible success truly is. They can see how Walter's perseverance paid off for him and know that the same can happen to them.