Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. Harper Tempest, 1999. ISBN-10: 006028077-8


Plot Summary
Steve Harmon is in jail awaiting trial for felony murder. He is 16. He is also an aspiring filmmaker. So to deal with the stress of incarceration, Steve writes down his experience as if it were a screenplay. Steve is accused of the being the look-out to a drugstore robbery that ended with the store owner killed. Steve knows the guys who were at the robbery but he claims that he wasn't involved. His defense attorney is working hard, but Steve isn't sure that she believes he's innocent. The prosecution has a lot of witnesses but they are all criminals, trying to strike a deal. Steve is never sure which way the trial will go until the verdict is announced.

Critical evaluation
Monster is full of questions that, in trying to answer, force the reader to look inward. Steve is clearly the product of a bad neighborhood- a black man in Harlem. It's no wonder that he knows thugs and drug dealers. But does living in the same neighborhood, even being friendly to criminals, make Steve as guilty as they are? The story is told as if it were a movie, directed by the book's main character and the reader is to understand that perspective- camera angles etc.- can alter the audience's view of the situation. Monster is at once the story of a teen's struggle for maturity and personal responsibility and the story of racism in the criminal justice system.

Reader's Annotations
The lookout was supposed to give a sign if there were cops in the store. If he gave NO sign, that was also a sign- a sign that the store was clear. So by saying nothing, by minding his own business, is Steve guilty? This is the question that Steve's murder trial will answer.

Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness
Understanding criminal justice, crime, and responsibility.

Genre and Subject
Realistic Fiction
African American Interest

Why Book Included
I've never read this title, although many students now read Monster in high school.