Autobiography of My Dead Brother - Harry Potter 6 Books

Product Description

The thing was that me and Rise were blood brothers, but sometimes I really didn't know him. . . .

And so Jesse fills his sketchbook with drawings and portraits of his blood brother, Rise, and his comic strip, Spodi Roti and Wise, as he makes sense of the complexities of friendship, loyalty, and loss in a neighborhood where drive–bys, vicious gangs, and abusive cops are everyday realities.

Printz Award winner Walter Dean Myers delivers an unforgettable novel about life's hardest lessons, illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Christopher Myers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #793484 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-01
• Released on: 2005-08-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 8 Up–Fifteen-year-old Jesse lives a clean and relatively careful life in contemporary Harlem. His best friend and honorary brother, Rise, is two years older and plays life faster and looser. The boys belong to a social club inherited from the men of the older generation. The Counts aren't a gang and the members tend to have a variety of aesthetic interests. Jesse is devoted to cartooning and sketching while C. J. is a fine musician. Rise, however, it seems to Jesse, has begun to lead a second life that doesn't include him or The Counts. Myers's story of urban violence and wasted youth unfolds inexorably, but the relationships among his characters–Jesse and his frightened parents; C. J. and Jesse; a local cop and the neighborhood boys; Jesse and a love-starved but sexually knowing girl–are nuanced and engaging rather than predictable. The black-and-white artwork throughout includes both realistic sketches of Jesse's friends and a cartoon-strip take on Rise, adding a dimension that expands readers' views of Jesse's world and of the conflicts presented to the boys. This novel is like photorealism; it paints a vivid and genuine portrait of life that will have a palpable effect on its readers.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 8-11. Funerals for young black men, both murdered in drive-by shootings, begin and end Myers' sobering story about contemporary Harlem teens. Fifteen-year-old Jessie has always seen slightly older Rise as a hero, and the boys made a blood-brother bond as children. Then Rise pulls away, starts dealing drugs and "fronting cool," and Jessie struggles to find his old friend beneath the new persona. His search leads him to art, which is his great talent, and he begins to create a biography of Rise in pictures. Frequent and striking black-and-white illustrations, done by Christopher Myers, depict pivotal moments from the boys' youth; there are also comics-style panels, in which a bird-boy character asks how best to live and communicate truthfully. The plot, which drifts a bit, isn't the focus here. What will affect readers most is Jessie's sharp, sometimes poetic first-person voice and the spirited, rhythmic dialogue of other vivid characters, who ask piercing questions about how to survive the violence and hopelessness rooted through a neighborhood's generations. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Walter Dean Myers is a New York Times bestselling author and a five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, and he has received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for his contribution to young adult literature. His picture books include patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam, I've Seen the Promised Land: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly. Mr. Myers lives with his family in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Customer Reviews

Good Book
I bought this book because my brother died in April 2008. I thought of writing his autobiography so I bought this book for inspiration however when I read this book it wasn't about his biological brother. It was a good read. Hopefully I will be able to write about my biological brother this way.

Slow-paced and a bit predictable
Walter Dean Myers is a master of YA literature, but with this one, you get the feeling that he's riding his reputation instead of putting something really solid out there.

I've taught teenagers from the world that Rise and Jesse supposedly come from (Houston, not Harlem, though). My students don't recognize themselves in C.J. and Jesse--there's something artificial about their relationships, something too solid. Teens of all income-levels tend to experience more tumult than this book shows even as dramatic events unfold. True, Myers might be working to break down stereotypes of inner-city youth, but it just doesn't sell to me--or to my teen students.

Autobiograpy of my dead brother
The book Autobiography of My Dead Brother, by Walter Dean Myers, tells the interesting and moving tale of one boy's struggle to live and learn in the harsh city he lives in. The story takes place in a small city called Amsterdam, where poverty stricken families live in small apartments across town. Amsterdam is full of shootings, drug abuse, and violence; Jesse works on writing and illustrating the story of his best friend Rise. From childhood to teenage years, his illustrations and stories capture the essence of life in the ghetto. But as Rise fades away from his friends and gets into trouble with gangs and drug dealing, the story turns for the worse.
When Jesse asks Rise about his new life he responds: "This is about real life, not about no dreams and stories. Real life, man. You can close your eyes and think about what you want to happen and what you want to see. But when you open your eyes, it's still the same old streets and the same old hurts."
I really enjoyed this book. I found it depressing, but meaningful. I learned more about how lucky we are not to take things for granted in our lives and society. If I could change one thing about this story, I would make it shorter because parts of it can be dull. I'd also change the ending which leaves the reader wondering what's next. I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys dramatic fiction and is a fan of Walter Dean Myer's first-person writing style I'd also recommend reading some of his other books such as Slam and Fallen Angels.