Monster | Walter Dean Myers

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Sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon is on trial for murder in connection with the shooting death of a local store-owner. Told in a mixed diary-and-screenplay format, his tension-filled story keeps readers in suspense until the very last pages.

Awards & Honors

• Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Literature for Young Adults, 2000
• An ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 2000
• An ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2000
• A Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book, 2000
• A National Book Award Finalist, 1999
• A Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, 1999

Booktalk

Monster. That’s what the prosecutor called Steve. He was a regular teenage boy with a loving family and a normal life—until one day last December, when a nearby convenience store was robbed and its owner brutally killed. Now Steve is being tried for felony murder, and nothing seems real anymore. Locked up in jail and grasping to make sense of the situation, he writes it all down as a movie, with scenes in the courtroom, flashbacks to the events of leading up to the robbery, and close-ups of the jury who will decide his fate. Will they see Steve for who he really is, or will they see … a monster?

Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. New York: HarperCollins, 1999.