Monster by Walter Dean Myer

An emotionally complex tale, Monster takes us into the world of the criminal justice system through the eyes of sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon, a high school student with a passion for filmmaking. Steve is on trial for felony murder, a charge that, if proven, carries the penalty of life in prison or death. It is, as his lawyer tells him, "as serious as it gets" (12). Steve is accused of being a lookout for a drugstore robbery that left the store's owner dead. This trial will change both his outlook on his life and actions and who he is.

As the novel opens, Steve writes from his cell in the detention center and captures the terror of being in prison. It is not about bars and being locked up, he tells us, "it is about being alone when you are not really alone and about being scared all the time" (4). It is clear that Steve is not a hard-edged juvenile delinquent, but rather an educated,...