Bad Boy Chapter 1 Summary

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In chapter 1 of “Bad Boy”, Walter Dean Myers talks about his family’s past. He also explains some interesting details. For example, on page 3, Walter says that he considers his father’s first wife, Florence Dean, his mother. Another interesting detail is the fact that Florence Dean is a white woman from Germany. Florence Dean ended up getting a divorce because her family didn’t approve the fact that she married a black man. That’s when she met Herbert Dean. They got married and brought all of their kids to Harlem, New York. In chapter 2, Walter considers Harlem his first home in his childhood. Walter’s favorite thing about Harlem is all of the music you could hear. He loved the music so much, that he made up a dance that he called: “The Boogie”. On page 11, there was an incident where Walter broke his sister’s watch because he did not get what he wanted. Sometimes, he spends time with a woman named Aunt Nancy, but Walter didn’t like it because Aunt Nancy spends most of her time taking naps. While he was at Aunt Nancy’s, he would go out with some of the other kids and bet up Jewish boys. When he’s with his mom, she would …show more content…

It wasn’t until the 2nd grade that he realized that he had a speech problem. A kid named Manuel Bonilla was making fun of his speech problem. That’s when the kid got smacked in the face by Walter. He ended up going to the principal’s office. One day, Walter’s mom told him that he was a big boy, and now Walter is able to use the extra key to go to the house. There was a woman that Walter hated that was nicknamed “The Wicked Witch of West Harlem”. She prevented him from reading comic books, and playing with guns. Walter found a way out of not reading comics thanks to a kid named “Roughie”. In 3rd grade, Walter slapped a kid, and then the teacher slapped Walter. The teacher ended up getting trouble for this, and Walter ended up doing badly at school. However, he still got promoted to the 4th

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