collected
Fiction · Novel · Historical Fiction · Young Adult
About 8 h · at 30 minutes a day, about 16 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
Captured in Africa in 1753, eleven-year-old Muhammad Bilal is forced aboard a slave ship bound for America. His descendants become the Lewis family, whose ties to a small plot on Curry Island, South Carolina, endure through slavery and the struggle to keep their land. Six linked sections follow young family members into Chicago, the civil rights movement and Harlem in the 1990s, as work, education and family obligations put their choices under pressure.
Written in spare, direct language, this YA historical novel covers generations through separate coming-of-age stories. The large jumps in time mean getting to know a new central character in each section, while the land and family history provide continuity.
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
Not really, the language is spare and direct, and no prior historical knowledge is needed. The main challenge is the large jumps in time: each section introduces a new central character, with family history and the land providing continuity.
No, six linked sections follow different young members of the same family across generations. Each has a separate coming-of-age story, while the family's ties to a small plot on Curry Island connect their experiences.
Slavery and racism are central, beginning with an eleven-year-old boy's capture in Africa and forced passage aboard a slave ship. Strong language is also present; violence and abuse are mild, though the family’s struggles carry substantial emotional weight.
It suits young adult readers interested in historical fiction built around family relationships and choices. Work, education and family obligations shape the separate coming-of-age stories, with a measured pace and an earnest, reflective, hopeful tone.
About 400 pages in the Scholastic Paperbacks 2008 edition. The narrative is divided into six linked sections, each following a different young family member.
Scholastic Paperbacks · 2008 · Paperback. ISBN 9780545055758.
About 8 hours at 50 pages an hour, based on the 400-page Scholastic Paperbacks edition. Dense books can take longer.
Walter Dean Myers was a prolific American writer best known for young adult literature, though his work also included picture books, nonfiction, biography, and historical fiction. Raised in Harlem, he drew on personal experience to write about Black young people with an immediacy he had first recognized in James Baldwin. His novels typically use direct, dialogue-driven prose to place adolescents inside demanding institutions and public events. Monster, assembled from diary entries and screenplay scenes, turns a murder trial into a study of self-perception, judgment, and uncertain testimony. Fallen Angels and Sunrise Over Fallujah examine war from the limited viewpoint of young soldiers, emphasizing confusion and moral strain over heroic certainty. Elsewhere, Slam! connects athletic ambition to school, pride, and responsibility, while The Glory Field follows a Black family across generations of American history. Across these forms, Myers combines accessible storytelling with close attention to how young people understand themselves when their choices are constrained by history, authority, and circumstance.
The catalog does not yet include a matching edition. Details may differ between editions.
