Harlem Summer

by Walter Dean Myers and Myers

Book Overview

Myers delivers a humorous, action-packed historical novel set during the Harlem Renaissance. OMyers's humorous coming-of-age story reflects the paradoxically playful yet dangerous atmosphere of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 054534235X
• Release Date: January 2012
• Publisher: scholastic
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Harlem Summer by Walter Dean Myers

The book Harlem Summer by Walter Dean Myers relates one summer in the life of 16-year-old Mark Purvis. Mark lives in Harlem and dreams of being a famous jazz saxophonist. Mark is exposed to the "New Negro" during a summer job at The Crisis, a famous African American newspaper, where he meets the likes of W.E.B. DuBois and Langston Hughes. After Mark gets into hot water with the police and some notorious gangsters, he has a better idea of who he wants to be as a man. This one summer impacts his life in hilarious and moving ways. The book incorporates real people that played major roles in the Harlem Renaissance. It's a history lesson told in a very entertaining format. I would definitely recommend this book to all readers, young and old!

Dr. Mary Hollowell / Teacher EDU / Clayton State University

Mark is at a crossroads in his life in Harlem in the 1920s. He has the dream of becoming a great saxophone player but doesn't have the discipline to practice. His hero, Fats, cons him into loading bootleg liquor onto a truck, and when the truck goes missing, a gangster threatens them. Mark isn't terribly worried, at first. He goes with the flow and dutifully starts a summer job, arranged by his aunt, at The Crisis magazine, headed by W.E.B. DuBois. Mark encounters many other greats such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Ethel Waters. He attends a glamorous party at the home of publisher Alfred Knopf and just misses hearing Marian Anderson sing. In a marvelous twist ending, Mark is freed from a life of crime, and inspired by great writers and singers, he comes to appreciate hard work and his own community. Walter Dean Myers gives us the Harlem Renaissance as seen through the eyes of a tremendously likeable main character. It is a treat to read the conversations between the young Mark and Langston Hughes. (Photographs of the real famous and infamous characters, during this time period, are included in an appendix.) Mark is a teenager that other teens can relate to; he doesn't have quite enough drive until he finds the right role models. Harlem Summer is filled with humor, glamour, and danger and recreates an important era in the twentieth century.

Bright or Shady Side

It's 1925 in Harlem, New York when readers are transported into the life of Mark, the main character of HARLEM SUMMER. Told from his point of view, this coming-of-age story features Harlem Renaissance figures such as Langston Hughes, Jesse Fauset, and Fats Waller. As the book opens, summer has arrived, Mark, an aspiring sax player who wants to make it big. He gets an opportunity to work for Fats Waller, an already established and widely sought after musician, hauling crates. Though the job with Fats is a one day thing, it has a lasting impact on Mark's summer and introduces him to a number of unsavory characters and exposes him to life on the "shady side of the street." Around the same time, Mark lands a job at The Crisis magazine (the NAACP publication). He would be working under the supervision of Jesse Fauset as more or less an errand boy. At the magazine office, Mark learns about the "New Negro" for the first time, meets a virtual who's who of that movement, and experiences what life on the "sunny side of the street" was like. Mark is at a crossroads in his life, trying to figure out what he wants to be and how to live. The experiences with Fats, The Crisis, and the ensuing dramas force Mark to make decisions about how he wants to live his life. HARLEM SUMMER is a wonderful book that pairs historical fiction with the day-to-day struggles of a teenager trying to find his place in life. Mark's character has a universal appeal, and his voice is genuine and humorous. At the end of the book there are brief biographical sketches and photos of many of the famous people who find their way in the story. Walter Dean Myers has written a funny and engaging tale that reminds us that all of our decisions have consequences and that life on the shady side of the street isn't always what it is cracked up to be. Reviewed by Stacey Seay of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Richie's Picks: HARLEM SUMMER

"As soon as the news got round The folks downtown, Came up to Harlem, Saw everyone Truckin' It didn't take long Before the high-hats were doing it, 'Park Avenuing' it, All over town, You see them shufflin,' shufflin,' shufflin' down." --"Truckin' " written by Rube Bloom and Ted Koehler, and performed by Fats Waller These days the course is listed as, "Afrocentric Perspectives in the Arts." Back in the spring of 1975 it was titled "Black Experience in the Arts." A couple of guys in my dorm at the University of Connecticut had heard that "Black Arts" was an easy class, if only because the lectures were of a civilized nature, being that their frequency was but once a week and they were held IN THE EVENING rather at some ungodly hour that might involve having to wake up in order to attend class. My dormmates persuaded me to tack the class on to my already full schedule for that semester. That way, if they were too busy to show up on a particular evening, they'd be able to copy my notes. Back in the spring of 1975 I was a teenager who owed so much of my sensibilities to having grown up tolerant in lily white northern suburbs and having spent the 1960s watching the horrific news on television of white "Christians" engaged in the beating, maiming, and slaughtering of Negroes and Negro sympathizers during the Civil Rights era. But while I knew a lot about what American citizens of color had endured before and during my childhood, I hadn't a clue at the beginning of my semester in Black Experience in the Arts of the existence of the Harlem Renaissance, nor any knowledge of the colorful characters whose work defined this rich cultural period in American history. But my knowledge base changed rapidly. Structured in large part as a series of guest lectures, my fond recollections of that course involved evenings of hearing first hand accounts of those lives and times. A particularly memorable highlight was listening to the late George Houston Bass who had been Langston Hughes' personal assistant and who served as the executor of Hughes' literary estate. These experiences came roaring back (as in Roaring Twenties) as I read Walter Dean Myers' exceptionally fun romp, HARLEM SUMMER. "C. Cephus Carter owned the House of Palms Funeral Home over on Lennox Avenue, down from Freddy's Fish Shack. Now, whenever you talked to that man he only had one thing on his mind, and that was how good the undertaking business was. " 'Everybody you see is a potential customer!' he liked to say. And he said it again and again. 'People dying today ain't never even thought of dying before!' " At the center of this HARLEM SUMMER is a sixteen year old young man of color named Mark. It is 1925, and Mark is an aspiring sax player who knows neighborhood star Fats Waller and dreams of jamming with the famous and beloved musician (who would have been twenty-one that summer). But the summer of 1925 gets much hotter than Mark could ever have imagined, thanks to his getting a

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

It's the summer of 1925 in Harlem, a summer that sixteen-year-old Mark Purvis will never forget. In just a months time, Mark will get to meet the best and the worst people of New York City. Mark gets a job at The Crisis, a magazine that promotes and encourages "New Negroes." The magazine was part of a movement created during that time with a mission to discover talented persons of color -- poets, novelists, and musicians -- and show them to the world. But Mark is not so sure that he wants to become a "New Negro." What he really wants to do is become a famous jazz player and play the saxophone with his band. So when "Fats," a well known piano player who made records, offers him and his friend, Henry, what sounds like an "innocent" job loading trucks in New Jersey, Mark and Henry don't think twice. This could be the opportunity they were looking for, their big break, a golden chance to be with "Fats" and tell him all about their jazz band. Maybe he could even help them get a record deal. What Mark didn't know is that the job was actually for the most dangerous man and leading bootlegger, Dutch Schultz. And Mark didn't know that what they helped load was illegal alcohol, and that the truck driver was going to drive away, all of a sudden, with the merchandise. And now Dutch Schultz wants his money back, and he wants Mark and Henry to pay for it. Will Mark get the money for Dutch Shultz? Will Mark become a "New Negro?" Will he be able to keep his job at The Crisis? Or will Mark end up traveling the wrong path? You'll have to read the book to find out. Every single word in Walter Dean Myers' book flows effortlessly in this entertaining novel. He makes writing look easy. HARLEM SUMMERS is a book that will strike a chord with all readers. Parents will love the lack of cursing and sex often seen in young adult literature. (Although, to be honest, I think that the author could have used some more cursing to make the dialogue sound a little more realistic.) Teachers and librarians will LOVE this novel that complements perfectly what we studied in 8th-grade social studies. I'm sure that this book will soon be part of many recommended summer reading lists. And teens will love the story, because after all... who wouldn't want to meet the head of a notorious gang?! The end of the book contains a section with biographical information of real individuals that appear in the book and lived in New York City during that period, like Alfred Knopf, Langston Hughes, "Bumby" Johnson, and others. Reviewed by: Christian C.