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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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English
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MONSTER

Christopher Myers Walter Dean Myers

MONSTER is what the prosecutor called 16-year-old Steve Harmon for his supposed role in the fatal shooting of a convenience-store owner. But was Steve really the lookout who gave the "all clear" to the murderer, or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time? In this innovative novel by Walter Dean Myers, the reader becomes both juror and witness during the trial of Steve's life.
To calm his nerves as he sits in the courtroom, aspiring filmmaker Steve chronicles the proceedings in movie script format. Interspersed throughout his screenplay are journal writings that provide insight into Steve's life before the murder and his feelings about being held in prison during the trial. "They take away your shoelaces and your belt so you can't kill yourself no matter how bad it is. I guess making you live is part of the punishment."

Myers, known for the inner-city classic Motown and Didi (first published in 1984), proves with MONSTER that he has kept up with both the struggles and the lingo of today's teens. Steve is an adolescent caught up in the violent circumstances of an adult world--a situation most teens can relate to on some level. Readers will no doubt be attracted to the novel's handwriting-style typeface, emphasis on dialogue, and fast-paced courtroom action. By weaving together Steve's journal entries and his script, Myers has given the first-person voice a new twist and added yet another worthy volume to his already admirable body of work.

Walter Dean Myers is a New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author who has garnered much respect and admiration for his fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for young people. Winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award, he is considered one of the preeminent writers for children. He lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, with his family.
Available products
Book

Published 1999-10-11 by HarperCollins

Book

Published 1999-04-17 by HarperCollins

Comments

Myers combines an innovative format, complex moral issues, and an intriguingly sympathetic but flawed protagonist in this cautionary tale of a 16-year-old on trial for felony murder…A fascinating portrait of a terrified young man wrestling with his conscience. The tense drama of the courtroom scenes will enthrall readers, but it is the thorny moral questions raised in Steve's journal that will endure in readers’ memories.

This riveting courtroom drama...will leave a powerful, haunting impression. An insightful look at a teenage suspect’s lost innocence.

Riveting…Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist's guilt or innocence. The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve's terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers's point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a ‘positive moral decision’ was not made.

In the last few months, Walter Dean Myers has featured on Amazon’s 100 Young Adult Books to Read in a Lifetime, Times’ 100 Best Children’s Books of All Time and 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time (only one other author has multiple titles on both lists from the Times!).

American Library Association: Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature (2000) Winner of Coretta Scott King Award (2000) nominated for National Book Award (1999; finalist)

Theatre and Film rights sold: The Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago recently purchased stage rights for the educational/school market for the 2016-17 Autumn season: Steppenwolf’s productions run for 4 weeks and reach 15,000 students per year, with the novel being incorporated into the students’ curriculum. This is big and highly exciting. And film rights are now under option with ToniK Productions (run by Tonya Lee and Nikki Silver)!

US: HarperCollins ; Brazil: Martins Fontes ; Turkey: Gunisigi Kitapligi