When they were young boys, they made a pact to stay in school and go on to become doctors. Now, Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt, and George Jenkins are not only doctors, they are successful authors who motivate young people to aim high. The Corner caught up with The Three Doctors to talk about what it takes to be successful.

Q. You three are big on education. What do you hope teens can learn from you about school?

A. We are giving our children a realistic view of what education can do to better the quality of their lives.  With our books, students around the country (and the world) are realizing the potential they have and the success they can achieve with education.  It is our hope that our example will inspire our young people to dream and pursue academic success and drastically reduce the drop out rate in communities across this country. 
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The Corner talked with former NFL coach and successful author, Tony Dungy, who has written both a memoir about his life and the children’s book You Can Do It!. Here’s what he had to say:

Q: You focus a lot on family relationships in You Can Do It!  How did your family influence the decisions that you made as a young boy and what impact did those decisions have on who you are today?

A: My family was very influential in my decision making as a young person.  I think they helped directly and indirectly. My parents were always there for advice, but as a young person I didn’t always ask for advice when I needed it. A lot of my decisions on how to live and what I should do as a young person were made by watching my parents and following their example. Probably the biggest help I got from my family was being encouraged to dream—to think that anything was possible. I think that’s one of the best things we can do for our kids. And that has impacted me to this day because I didn’t think I was ever limited in any way in what I could accomplish.

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Not only are Tiki Barber and Ronde Barber twin athletes who have made their marks in the NFL, they are also authors! Check out this interview with these talented brothers!

Q: You both played a lot of sports as kids. At what age did you two decide that you were most serious about football?

T: We probably didn’t exclusively focus on football until our second year in college. We just enjoyed being athletes.

R: I don’t think it was ever a case of deciding that football was the right sport to get serious about. We were both great track-and-field athletes as well, and we competed into our college days. I would guess that our senior years in high school, after we accepted our football scholarships, was when we said this is what we are best at.

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Walter Myers was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia in 1937. When he was only two years old, his mother died. At age three, Walter moved to Harlem with his new foster family, the Deans. Growing up, he spent a lot of his time on the basketball court and in the public library. Walter’s foster mother, a half-Indian and half-German woman, taught him how to read.

Myers grew up with a speech impediment that made it difficult for him to communicate with others. Frustrated and tired of being taunted, Myers often found himself in fights. At the age of nine, he began to express himself through writing poems and short stories. Myers later dropped out of high school and joined the army on his 17th birthday.

As a young adult, Myers worked odd jobs, but he never stopped writing. Whether he was loading trucks or working at the post office, he usually found time to write at night. Myers published articles in journals and magazines, but the biggest break of his career occurred in 1969, when he won a contest organized by the Council on Interracial Books for Children. His entry, Where Does a Day Go?, became his first published children’s book. Myers has since become one of the country’s most popular African American writers for children and teens. He has won five Coretta Scott King Awards and two Newbery honors. Drawing from his own experiences growing up in Harlem, Myers often writes about the challenging realities that face today’s urban youth. Walter Dean Myers frequently collaborates with his son, illustrator Christopher Myers.

Myers, the father of four, lives with his wife in Jersey City, New Jersey. As an adult, he adopted Dean as his middle name — in honor of his loving foster parents.

Hey Crew–

Our last selection of 2009! Wow how the year has flown. This book will be a good one and a great way to end the year.

DOPE SICK by WALTER DEAN MYERS
The itch starts when things get too heavy for Lil J. Skin popping or stealing pain pills from his mom help him relax. But Lil J’s focus is wandering because money is short, and his man Rico knows a way to make some quick cash. It’s supposed to be an easy deal, but it isn’t so simple when the buyer is an undercover cop.

With a gunshot wound to the arm, Rico in jail, and a police officer clinging to life, Lil J is starting to get dope sick. He’d do anything to change the last twenty-four hours, and when he stumbles into an abandoned crack house, it actually might be possible. . .
Walter Dean Myers weaves elements of magical realism into a harrowing story about drug use, violence, alternate perceptions of reality, and second chances.

Linda Beatrice Brown is the author of three novels. She also writes poems, plays, short stories, and essays. She started writing at the age of 14 and her first poetry was published at the age of 19. For many years she has been a professor of African American Literature. For several years she was even a speech writer for a college president.

Her experience as a teacher inspired her to write about the Civil War period in a novel for young people. She currently holds the Willa B. Player chair in the Humanities at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, NC.

Linda has two adult children and 6 grandchildren and lives in a 100 year old house in Greensboro, NC.

Alan Lawrence Sitomer is California’s 2007 Teacher of the Year. In addition to being an inner-city high school English teacher and former professor in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola Marymount University, Mr. Sitomer is a nationally renowned speaker specializing in engaging reluctant readers who received the 2004 award for Classroom Excellence from the Southern California Teachers of English and the 2003 Teacher of the Year honor from California Literacy. In April 2007, Alan was named Educator of the Year by Loyola Marymount University and in February 2008 The Insight Education Group named Alan Lawrence Sitomer the Innovative Educator of the Year.

Mr. Sitomer has also authored four young adult novels published by Disney, which include The Hoopster, Hip-Hop High School, Homeboyz and The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez.

The American Library Association named Homeboyz a Top Ten Book of the Year 2008, receiving the prestigious ALA Quick Pick Recognition for young adult novel which best engages reluctant readers. The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez was also been nominated for the same award.

Alan is the author of Hip-Hop Poetry & the Classics, a text being used in classrooms across the United States to illuminate classic poetry through hip-hop in order to engage disengaged students in both poetry and academics.

Additionally, Mr. Sitomer has just written a teacher’s methodology book for Scholastic titled Teaching Teens & Reaping Results: In a Wi-Fi, Hip-Hop, Where-Has-All-The-Sanity-Gone World.
Most recently, Mr. Sitomer has authored The Alan Sitomer BookJam.

For September, we read Paul Volponi’s HURRICANE SONG. Like every month, here’s an interview with Mr. Volponi about this book! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

What inspired you to write this book?

           I was watching the news coverage when a local musician gave his account of braving the conditions in the street to see what had happened to a favorite jazz club in which he regularly played. I was so incredibly moved by his feelings for that patch of ground that the wheels of a storyline began turning in my head, eventually evolving into Miles and Pop’s personal and physical journey in Hurricane Song. The courage of everyone involved, the heroic and giving nature of those who laid their lives on the line to help, and the woefully unprepared nature of our government which contributed to the danger and lawlessness so many had to endure, pushed me to take on this project about an overwhelming event that called out to the humanity in all of us.

           17-year-old Miles in the Superdome—I stopped trying to figure out how scared I was or if that empty feeling in my stomach would ever quit. The sweat came down my face, stinging the corners of my mouth. Maybe it was 110-degrees. And when those flashlights disappeared and everything went dark again, it was like somebody shut the oven door on us. …Then I heard a baby cry with a shriek that nearly stopped my heart cold. And for the life of me, I didn’t know if that baby was being born or dying.

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