Staff Pick of the Week!

This week's pick is Harlem Summer by Walter Dean Myers (YA MYERS).

It's 1925 in Harlem, and sixteen-year old Mark Purvis cares about only two things - getting to play his sax with Fats Waller and staying alive until the end of the summer. While trying to convince the legendary piano player to listen to him play, Mark found himself on the bad side of local gangster Dutch Schultz. Mark and his friend Henry had agreed to assist Dutch with a transport (all the while hoping they'd get closer to Fats) and found out too late that they helped transport whiskey - a definite mistake during the Prohibition era. And when the entire shipment goes missing, Dutch decides to blame Mark. In the meantime, Mark is trying to survive his summer job at The Crisis, look for any break he can in the music business, and try not to fall in love too many times. Peopled with such famous figures as Fats, Langston Hughes, and W.E.B. DuBois, Harlem Summer is a hilarious take on how to follow one's dreams, all the while trying to avoid getting into major trouble.