Skip to main content

Monster


Summary:
16 year old Steve Harmon is in jail awaiting trial for being an accomplice to murder during a store robbery. During his trial, his attorney, Kathy O'Brien, works to defend him while unsure whether Steve is innocent or guilty. Steve is accused of standing as a lookout for two others during the robbery and can be sentenced to death if found guilty. The book is narrated by Steve and is partially written as a script, as Steve is part of his high school film club and wants to become a filmmaker. This book takes a hard look at the criminal justice system, overt and hidden racism and peer pressure. In the end, Steve is found innocent and released and continues his film making.

Strengths: 
This book left me feeling unsettled, which seems to be the intent. The themes in the book are complex - underlying and systemic racism, the effects that being part of the criminal justice system has on young men, particularly those of color, the strengths and weaknesses of the judicial system in America and the lives of young men in poverty are all themes that are woven within the book. The narrative style is told as a script written by Steve and includes film directions and effects so that the reader feels like they are actually reading a script. In the end, the reader is left with some ambiguity as to what Steve's role was in the robbery and whether that role should have been punishable by the death penalty in the first place. This book is incredibly thought provoking for adult as well as adolescent readers.

Other Books by Walter Dean Myers:

Dopesick
Bad Boy: A Memoir

 Myers, W., & Myers, C. (1999). Monster. New York, N.Y.: HarperCollins. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bloom's Taxonomy for a Digital Age

Bloom's Taxonomy. One of the things we are constantly hearing in our school is the push for increased rigor in our classroom, as a result of the STAAR tests and others like it becoming more rigorous. We are told to push for higher order thinking and questioning from our students. One of the tools we use to look at how we can increase rigor is Bloom's Taxonomy. But some things about Bloom's don't translate exactly when we are talking about the digital age and the classroom or library. For example, remembering is the lowest piece of the triangle for Bloom's, but remembering looks different when you have instant access to a powerful computer that can use essentially limitless online resources to find answers. I've mentioned to my husband just how much more this and future generations will know about the world around them simply because they no longer have to remember everything they're interested in knowing. If I pass a historical marker for a place I haven...

Library Communication and Social Media

When social media became a "thing", businesses were one of the first entities to jump on board. Many companies realized that social media created an essentially free way to advertise. As social media developed, targeted marketing using social media became an even more effective way to communicate and advertise with specific consumer bases. Educational entities eventually got on board as well. What does this have to do with your library? Plenty. Let's take a look at most popular social media platforms - Facebook and Twitter, and how they are being used by libraries to promote and communicate with their clients as well as help educate and connect library staff members worldwide. Stay tuned for a future post on the social media platform that is ahead of Twitter in teen use, Instagram. Facebook The brain child of Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard classmates, Facebook was created in 2004 as a way for college students to connect online. Myspace, a Facebook predecessor, had al...

Screencasting in the Library

I love screencast programs. I've used screencasts in my music classroom as sub lesson plans, as directions in centers and when I'm having voice problems like strep and I need to be able to teach the same lesson every day of the week without putting strain of my voice. Today, I'm going to show you two different ways to use screencast using two different screencast programs. Screencast-O-Matic Screencast-O-Matic is a web based screen capture program. You can find it here . You will need to download the record launcher, but once you do that, Screencast-O-Matic is really simple to use. A window pops up for you to select settings and once you do that, a small bar appears on your screen with controls while recording. Every time you press record, the recorder gives you a 3 second count down so you can get ready to go. You can pause, which is very useful. In addition, you can back up the recording and record over a previous mistake. I love this feature. There is a 15 minute lim...