Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myers's novel Monster (1999) is uniquely written from the first person perspective of Steve Harmon, a 16-year old boy who is on trial as an accomplice to a murder. I say uniquely because the book isn't written in typical prose, but rather it's written as a screenplay crafted by Steve mixed in with brief moments of personal narrative. However, this choice isn't arbitrary because Steve has a personal affinity for film as the reader quickly learns of his involvement in his high school's film club and imagines much of his life through the different angles of a camera lens.

From start to finish, the book is focused on the trial of Steve Harmon and James King. Briefly put, King allegedly murders a neighborhood storeowner, Alguinaldo Nesbitt, during a robbery with a fellow criminal--Richard "Bobo" Evans. Steve is on trial as well because he has been accused of being the lookout for the group, and therefore, helping both the robbery and murder to successfully occur.

I wholeheartedly believe that this novel would be great for an English classroom to study and read through for a number of reasons. One, the book is written in the vernacular so it is very easy to read. A critique may be that the reading/vocabulary is not very challenging. However, I believe the challenge is in the second reason which is the fact that the story deals with so many difficult issues--issues that, I believe, is missing from a great deal of young adult literature. The book deals with social issues such as race relations, stereotypes, and incarceration and also more abstract issues such as justice, truth, and power. Lastly, I would advocate that this book be read in middle school classes because of the prominent motif of film, which could allow teachers to draw in students into the text by both allowing them to act the text out and also incorporating their own film projects in follow-up assignments. Except for perhaps the appropriateness of the novel (i.e., mention of rape, violence, etc.), I believe that this book should be introduced in middle school English classes.