Listen to a Meet-the-Author recording with Christopher Myers about illustrating Harlem: A PoemĬheck out the TeachingBooks page for Harlem: A Poem to find interviews and videos with Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers collected into one place. Think about when the people in your community moved in, and why. What happens in the community you created? Who lives there, and what do they do there? Tell a story of something that happened in this community. You could use this technique, or you could use markers, just crayons, or cut buildings out of pieces of paper and glue them down! Write Since the wax in crayons is water resistant, watercolor paint does not stick in places where the wax is. I then used watercolor over the crayon to add color to the buildings. While there is no cussing, mature content makes this a better pick for ages 14 and up.For this example, I used crayon to outline the buildings, windows, and the moon in the sky. It would be best to teach this novel by having students actually read it aloud and act it out, so that they have concrete movements to convey what is at times rather abstract prose. However, they may find the format hard to follow. Students will enjoy the gritty setting, which gets plenty of loving description by Myers. The adult characters get less sympathetic portrayals though they all have their reasons for wanting to keep Damien and Junice apart, their cynicism reveals their powerlessness. is full of sharp repartee and would make a lively classroom read-aloud. She even tells Damien at one point, “I am only what you see, this stick/Of a woman trying to make enough magic/To negotiate the shadows of these streets.My life is not packaged” (109). Acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers delivers the first book in a series that will.
Damien is thoughtful and kind, while Junice refuses to let her situation define her. Myers displays his considerable talents through these vignettes as each poetic voice is at once unique and in harmony with the other poems.īoth Damien and Junice are strong characters.
Sometimes we get glimpses into Damien’s thoughts, other times Junice’s, the mothers’, and even the social worker assigned to Junice’s case. How the two lovers meet, interact, and ultimately decide their fate unfolds in short poems written from multiple points of view. Damien’s mother and father are proud of his accomplishments, including acceptance to Brown, but they want no part of Junice or her troubles. Junice’s mother has just been sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for possession and distribution of drugs, and she has no one to look after her and her nine-year-old sister, Melissa. This slim volume, written in free verse, tells the story of Damien and Junice, two Harlem teenagers who fall in love despite all the forces against them.
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