![]() ![]() ![]() Two people are dead how many more?Īngela soon finds out the bitter truth behind Marys words, and realizes Mary wasnt lying. Kathy the head cheerleader CANNOT lift thousands of weights over her head, without breaking a sweat. Vampires can control their thirst&monsters cant&.Īngela is determined to find out the mystery, behind Marys words. She said she killed them because they were no longer human. I would recommend Monster to junior high school age students up. The subject material is obviously gritty, it deals with prison violence and the subject of prison rape is implied. The novel poses some serious questions and themes for the reader to consider, such as to whether Steve is guilty or not and the fairness of the judicial system. Is Steve a monster? That is a question he will struggle with as he comes to term with his identity – how he perceives himself and how he is seen my others. The title of the book and Steve’s script ‘Monster’ comes from a label given to him by the prosecutor. The novel features illustrations by Myer’s son Christopher, who is a children’s author and illustrator in his own right. But I put this behind me as I have to remember this is the script written by a sixteen-year-old – not a trained scriptwriter. This experimental narrative gives the reader two forms of narratives – a deeply personal first person narrative in the form of a diary and a more distant third person narrative in the film script.Īs someone who has studied film and is familiar with scriptwriting conventions at first I was bothered by the scriptwriting convention errors, which briefly took me out of the story. To help him process this life changing experience Steve records his experiences in prison and court in the form of a film script and diary. The novel follows sixteen-year-old Steve Harmond, an African American teenager from Harlem, who is on trial for his role as an accomplice in a drugstore robbery that resulted in the death of an employee. This, as Paul Harvey would say, is "the rest of the story." Monster should be read by teens across the world, especially those who would like to be as "cool" as the tough kids in school. Through those interviews he learned that it isn't one step that lands you in jail it's the little decisions you make every single day. He interviewed drug pushers, prostitutes, killers and other criminals serving time. Myers's research for the story took months. You can't help but wonder why he ever chose to associate with the other defendants-the same thing Steve is wondering himself. You cannot help feeling both sorrow and repugnance for him as you read between the lines of the story. Steve himself is not sure of his innocence and neither is his lawyer. Myers does not pull any punches.Īnd that is the best thing about this book. The pain, fear and humiliation of the jail time is effectively and realistically portrayed. A teenager's fears should be about simple things (homework, dates, getting along with your parents), not whether he will be beaten or raped by other inmates. The diary entries were the most horrifying part for me. ![]() The story is told in a refreshing way, alternating between Steve's portrayal of the action as a film script (his way of dealing with the horror of it all is to distance himself by imagining he is behind the camera) and diary excerpts. And now he's on trial because he let those people make some choices for him. On the mean streets of Harlem, he looked up to them and wanted to be like them. And why is he, an aspiring film maker and good student, there? He's there because, in part, he wanted to be as "cool" and "bad" as the other defendants in the trial. Steve Harmon, a sixteen year-old, is on trial for felony murder. It's a story of how the little things in life, the ones we don't even notice, can lead you down the path of despair before you even know it. Monster is a terrifying book by Walter Dean Myers and it was nominated for the 1999 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. ![]()
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