Monster
14 Jul 2009 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: 2000 Michael L. Printz Award Winner, crime, juvenile deliquency, prison
Monster by Walter Dean Meyers
Published by Amistad, New York: 1999
281 pgs
Recommended reading age: 13 and up
VOYA rating: 5P, 4P, JS
Steve Harmon is in juvenile prison for a crime he may or may not have committed. Basically Steve has been tried for serving as an accomplice to a robbery of a drug store. Steve is asked by a local group of guys in the neighborhood to participate in the robbery by serving as the look-out. The robbery goes down and in a heated moment one of the young robbers loses his cool and shoots the store owner down in cold blood. Steve, along with the other boys involved in the crime, are all taken into custody and charged. Steve then has to go to trial for murder even though he didn’t commit one. Whether or not Steve actually was there as look-out on the night of the crime is another story but even if he was there, Steve clearly seems to feel he did not aid in the murder or robbery directly.
That is not to say that Steve doesn’t seem to indicate a certain amount of remorse as the narrator because he does seem to feel remorse. You really get inside his head and get to hear his fears and feelings as he sits in his cell dreading what will happen to him in the future. You can tell that he is sorry for what has happened which seems to indicate guilt but you never get any actual proof.
This is a very uniquely written book that is written through Steve’s perspective. You learn the story through his journal entries that he writes while in lock-up as well as through the movie script that he is writing of his life. Since we only get Steve’s side of the story, as told through a series of flashbacks between before the robber and present time, the story is a little skewed. All we know by the end of the book is whether or not the jury finds Steve guilty. The reader never really hears specifically what exactly he does on the night of the robbery. You only see the events leading up to the crime and the exchanges between Steve and the other gang of kids planning the heist. You also get to see some pictures within the book including a mug shot for Steve which also is used for the cover art.
Steve may not have been the robber with the gun but if he truly was a look-out in this crime then he just might be partly responsible for the shop owner’s death. But is he really guilty? The flashbacks that Steve gives seem to point to the fact that he did serve as look-out but that he didn’t shoot anyone. If Steve was really there, then why didn’t he tell the robbers that the store wasn’t clear? Why would he purposely lie about this? Perhaps he just chickened out and ran away so the robbers went ahead assuming that Steve had given the “all clear” sign. You just never quite know for certain. This is something that Steve never comes right out and says so this truth is left up for debate.
I thought the style and format of this book was very interesting. I think a reluctant reader might like this written in script form because it feels a bit more like a movie. It also varies between script form and journal entries so it doesn’t get too boring. It keeps the reader on their toes but creates a movie-type narrative which is engaging and appealing for teens. It is semi-nonlinear so some reluctant readers may have trouble with that since the story bounces around in time and describes certain events very ambiguously. The book is about crime and punishment but doesn’t get too detailed in the descriptions about violence. Language is only mildly harsh. Overall, it wouldn’t be all that inappropriate for younger tween readers, but it might be too serious or boring for them to take much interest in it unless they are use to reading at a higher level.
The cover is a striking jumpsuit-orange that grabs the attention of the reader. It shows a close-up mug shot of Steve. Between the grainy black photo of Steve and the orange cover it feels reminiscent of a prisoner in his cell with his orange jumpsuit on. I don’t know that it is a particularly fancy cover but it works for the story.
