Monster

BONUS FEATURE: Afterword read by the author

A Harlem drugstore owner was shot and killed in his store, and the word is that 16-year-old Steve Harmon served as the lookout. Was he involved or was he simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? An amateur filmmaker, Steve transcribes his trial into a movie script, showing scene by scene how his life was turned around in an instant.

FADE IN: INTERIOR: Early morning in CELL BLOCK D, MANHATTAN DETENTION CENTER.

Steve (Voice-Over): Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. Maybe I can make my own movie. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I'll call it what the lady prosecutor called me...Monster.

FADE IN: INTERIOR COURT. A guard sits at a desk behind STEVE. KATHY O’BRIEN, STEVE’s lawyer, is all business as she talks to STEVE.

O’BRIEN
Let me make sure you understand what’s going on. Both you and this King character are on trial for felony murder. Felony murder is as serious as it gets....When you’re in court, you sit there and pay attention. You let the jury know that you think the case is as serious as they do....

STEVE
You think we’re going to win?

O’BRIEN (seriously)
It probably depends on what you mean by “win.”
“The production is recorded as a full-cast dramatization, and it's difficult to imagine how it might have been accomplished more effectively. A superb recording of an intriguing work.”—AudioFile Earphones Award Winner


Coretta Scott King: Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement
Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Literature for Young Adults
National Book Award finalist
Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book
Edgar Allan Poe Award nominee, Best Young Adult
Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book

Walter Dean Myers is a Newbery Honor-winning author of more than 50 books, including Hoops.
From the Hardcover edition.