Status
Available
Publication
Programs and Genres (2019), Edition: Reprint, 304 pages
Library's review
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery
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. (Fiction. 12-14)
-Kirkus Review
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery
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and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, 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. (Fiction. 12-14)
-Kirkus Review
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Awards
National Book Award (Finalist — Young People's Literature — 1999)
Boston Globe–Horn Book Award (Honor — Fiction — 1999)
Edgar Award (Nominee — Young Adult Novel — 2000)
Sequoyah Book Award (Nominee — Young Adult — 2002)
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Young Adult Literature — 1999)
BCCB Blue Ribbon Book (1999)
Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award (Nominee — 2001)
Kentucky Bluegrass Award (Nominee — Grades 9-12 — 2002)
Iowa Teen Award (Nominee — 2002)
Lincoln Award: Illinois Teen Readers' Choice Award (Nominee — 2005)
South Dakota Teen Choice Book Awards (Nominee — 2000)
Coretta Scott King Award (Honor — 2000)
Grand Canyon Reader Award (Nominee — Teen — 2002)
Golden Archer Award (Nominee — 2004)
Printz Award (Winner — 2000)
Black-Eyed Susan Book Award (Nominee — High School — 2001)
IBBY Honour Book (Writing — 2002)
Evergreen Teen Book Award (Nominee — 2002)
Isinglass Teen Read Award (Winner — 2003)
Rhode Island Teen Book Award (Nominee — 2001)
South Carolina Book Awards (Nominee — Junior Book Award — 2003)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 2000)
CCBC Choices (2000)
NCTE Adventuring with Books: A Booklist for Pre-K—Grade 6 (12th Edition: 1996-1998)
Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (Selection — 2000)
Project LIT Book Selection (Young Adult — 2020)
OYAN Book Rave (2000)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1999-04-21
ISBN
0064407314 / 9780064407311
Other editions
Monster by Walter Dean Myers (Paperback)