About this book:
This is the capturing story about a murder trial told from the perspective of a young, African American high school boy, Steve, who is one of the main suspects. Although he is involved in the plot of robbing the drug store, he is not involved in the murdering of the drug store owner, who is killed during the robbing. However, that is why he is listed as a main suspect. The novel is written in an interesting way: Steve is an aspiring film maker and writes every detail from the trial in a personal journal in movie script form. After many days of the trial and after many lessons learned by Steve, we find out his verdict.
What comes from this book:
From this book, your students will follow the journey that Steve goes through in his short time in jail, during the moments in the courtroom, and the events leading up the criminal acts. We see many personal lessons that Steve learns about himself as well as lessons he learns about the world around him. He learns a very important lesson about peer pressure because he was really persuaded to being in this situation by the man who really committed the crime. Had he not fallen for that, he wouldn't be in the murder trial in the first place. He also learns a great deal about humanity. His lawyer constantly tells him that because he's a black sixteen year-old teenager, the jurors think ill of him. He has to prove himself through his words and actions or he won't stand a chance. Because of this, he wrestles with the thought of whether he really is a bad person or if that's just the way the world is perceiving him.
Classroom uses for this book:
Students can learn many things from this book. The main themes Myers depicts here are peer pressure, humanity, and identity. This is a great independent book for middle school or high school students to read. Kids around this age are struggling with their identity, as well and how others around them perceive them. Use this book as a way of showing them that they're not alone and the ways to get through identity situations is by believing in yourself and doing what you know is right. This is also a very great way to get inside a court room to see how trials really work.
Further information about this book:
Myers, Walter Dean, and Christopher Myers. Monster. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1999. Print. ISBN: 9780064407311
This is the capturing story about a murder trial told from the perspective of a young, African American high school boy, Steve, who is one of the main suspects. Although he is involved in the plot of robbing the drug store, he is not involved in the murdering of the drug store owner, who is killed during the robbing. However, that is why he is listed as a main suspect. The novel is written in an interesting way: Steve is an aspiring film maker and writes every detail from the trial in a personal journal in movie script form. After many days of the trial and after many lessons learned by Steve, we find out his verdict.
What comes from this book:
From this book, your students will follow the journey that Steve goes through in his short time in jail, during the moments in the courtroom, and the events leading up the criminal acts. We see many personal lessons that Steve learns about himself as well as lessons he learns about the world around him. He learns a very important lesson about peer pressure because he was really persuaded to being in this situation by the man who really committed the crime. Had he not fallen for that, he wouldn't be in the murder trial in the first place. He also learns a great deal about humanity. His lawyer constantly tells him that because he's a black sixteen year-old teenager, the jurors think ill of him. He has to prove himself through his words and actions or he won't stand a chance. Because of this, he wrestles with the thought of whether he really is a bad person or if that's just the way the world is perceiving him.
Classroom uses for this book:
Students can learn many things from this book. The main themes Myers depicts here are peer pressure, humanity, and identity. This is a great independent book for middle school or high school students to read. Kids around this age are struggling with their identity, as well and how others around them perceive them. Use this book as a way of showing them that they're not alone and the ways to get through identity situations is by believing in yourself and doing what you know is right. This is also a very great way to get inside a court room to see how trials really work.
Further information about this book:
Myers, Walter Dean, and Christopher Myers. Monster. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1999. Print. ISBN: 9780064407311