Culturally Diverse Literature: Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Bibliographic Data

Myers, Walter Dean, and Christopher Myers. Monster. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1999. Print.

Summary

Steve Harmon is a 16 year old African American kid is on trial for his life for a murder of a store clerk. Steve is the narrator and writes the story as a script for a movie. Will he be convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison, or will he get off and have a chance to grow up and prove to his family he’s the kid they believed he was?

Critical Analysis

Monster was the first winner of the Michael L. Printz Award in 2000. The writing is easy to read, and you are able to get into the mind of Steve Harmon almost immediately with his journal entry about how terrible jail is. Going back and forth between his journal entries, and his script helps the reader to see what’s happening in the courtroom along with how he’s feeling about everything going on. There are a few pictures scattered throughout which don’t enhance the story. Some of the dialogue and the law lingo might be hard for some students to wade through. However, Myers tries to help by having the lawyers explain some of their words or motions.

Creative Activity

Because the books is written in the form of a movie, students could recreate the book in a reader’s theater format (with or without the words to read from). Students could also record their recreations to create the film Steve wanted to create.

Related Resources

Students can read about the latest facts of African Americans being incarcerated in the United States. Students can then discuss why they feel these trends are happening, and what they can do to help these numbers decrease.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "Criminal Justice Fact Sheet." NAACP. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, n.d. Web. 05 July 2016.

Students can learn more about the ins and outs of a criminal trial. They can use this knowledge to discuss if they feel they would have convicted Steve and King, or if they would have let them off.

"Criminal Trial Overview - FindLaw." Findlaw. Thomson Reuters, n.d. Web. 05 July 2016.

Published Review

Beavin, Kristi. "Monster." Horn Book Magazine 77.1 (2001): 123. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text. Web. 5 July 2016.