Customer Reviews

145th Street: Short Stories

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Walter Dean Myers' collection of short stories focuses on the inhabitants of "145th Street" in Harlem. Each story is well-crafted and geared to readers 12 and up; Delacorte Press is the children's branch of Random House Publishers. However, this volume is fine reading for adults as well as children.

The stories share characters, settings, and tone. Myers does an excellent job avoiding bad language while maintaining the vernacular and rhythms of the rich characters that he portrays. Myers has a knack for giving his characters life and credibility. Myers manages to give a sense of adult versus youth dialect in leading us through the concrete realities of Harlem.

Although characters are repeated in the stories, sometimes as background and others as key characters, each story stands on its own and may be read in any order without loss of continuity. In other words, the stories do not build on one another like chapters in a novel.

Each of the ten stories strikes a chord in the reader and "shows" rather than just "tells" you the pressures, fears, and joys of living in the "hood." Human emotion is itself a character throughout the collection and the story lines are expertly constructed to avoid being preachy while relating theme and the moral undercurrent of the human struggle with choices that must be made every day on 145th street.

I particularly enjoyed "Big Joe's Funeral" and "A Christmas Story." Big Joe is a restaurant owner and has his own particular, unique, and large view of what a funeral ought to be about. The Christmas tale delicately balances the spirit of Christmas against the desire of a policeman to separate his personal life from the harshness of the beat he walks.

Every story in this collection is interesting and entertaining. As a sampler, it has whetted my appetite for more of Walter Dean Myers' books. I highly recommend this collection for young or old readers and those who simply appreciate a good story spun by an author with a natural voice.

So much attention has been given to Christopher Paul Curtis lately, but it seems to me the prolific work of Walter Dean Myers needs a loud cheering section--so here goes. Two customer reviews, "Another Stunning Work..." and "Good Stories Spun..." give thorough synopses of this anthology. I'll add that my middle schoolers LOVED these stories when I bought the book last spring, and I plan on reading it with my seventh graders later this year too. The stories are combinations of slick, sad, silly, and serious, and therefore one story was able to hook the kids into reading another and another. One 12 year old boy in my class was so intrigued by a character named Peaches--described as "so fine"--that he paid attention to everything else we read from the book hoping she'd turn up again. And she did! Walter Dean Myers just has a keen sense of the world and his gift with words makes reading this, and any, book by him a pleasure.

In the book 145th Street Short Stories by Walter Dean Myers he talks about all things that happen in this street. There are some gansters but best of all some great friends that are always there when you need them. In this book you will meet some teenagers that are faced with hard decisions.

WhatI liked about the book was how the author used descriptive language ,I can vizualize and connect. I like almost all of the stories because its like you learn lesson from the story.In this book I connected a lot but I learned three lessons for life.

I recommend this book to anyone that is in 5th grade and up, but I think its more of a middle school book.In this book you will learn some new things. Read on to discover a book that has some interesting stories or experiences.

I really liked the book because it realated or reminded me of being back home! Back home it seemed like everywhere around where i stayed everybody knew everybody, and thats the way the book was. On 145th street it seemed like everything happened and when it did everybody knew about it! i Also like the book because i like how he makes it sound like we're all sitting around listening to someone tell what happened earlier that day! The stories i really injoyed were Big Joe's funeral, and The Baddest Dog in harlem! I m really loking forward to reading more of his books!

This book of short stories reads like an interconnected novel, a snapshot of a place as well as the people who live there. Rarely is geography as integral to plot, and to the lives of the characters, in YA fiction as it is with Myers's work. 145th Street is a shining example of the short story medium; from the hurt hopelessness in "Fighter" to the slapstick humor in "The Streak," each of these stories is a jewel that joins into a perfect treasure. Authentic voices, in raging pain and in jubilation, make this one of the most uplifting books so far this year

This novel is very interesting there is always new events happening, the book never gets boring. The characters are destined to do anything to get there point across. This Harlem setting novel is unpredictable and its jaw dropping. All ten stories in the novel are amusing.In one of the stories it shows how an urban community goes through rough times, but gets through it by sticking together and trusting one another. Walter Dean Myers is an amazing writer, he knows what the readers like. The author takes his readers through 145th street and allows them to exprience events that doesn't happen anywhere else in the world.

I had to read this book 4 school and I thought it waz gonna be really stupid. But then I started to read through it and I really enjoyed it. I owned Mouse Rap but I neva read it, and I just finished Slam. But this book iz different than the others. Even though Slam is my all time favorite this book waz really good. I liked how Walter Dean Myers put the characters in real life situations and showed how they dealt it out.

A grown man at his own funeral, but he is not dead. He wants to be at his funeral while he is alive so he can hear what is said about him, so he makes his own and pretends to be dead. This is just one thing that can happen on 145th street. This is one of the short stories that is a part of this great book. All the stories focus on one character but in the end they are tied together by a bond, a bond which is that they all live and breath this street. You can enjoy stories to read before bed or you can flash through the whole book at once. It's your choice. Enjoy.

I only wanted to ask why purchased books are not deleted from your wish list. I accidently ordered twice.

I am a senior and thought the book was fabulous. I now think I should read every single one of Mr. Myers offerings. I am half way through What They Found. He has a very special way of reaching people, at my age and with my reading background, I think I have found a new O.Henry.