This is a book that all teens should read. This is a story about being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and being charged with a crime when you weren't the person who actually committed it.
Written in a play format, because the protagonist is a film student in school, shows everything from his point of view. It seems like his way to step outside his experience of the court case and deal with his emotions.
Again, all teens should read this story! ( )

I didn't mind the different writing style (like a play or movie format). I thought it helped break up just how horrific his time was in jail.

This was a very real story about how making one wrong choice, no matter how small that choice is, can entirely change your life. ( )

2000 Printz Award Winner ( )

Quick book, written as a screenplay... which bothered me at first, but then I was sucked into the story.

Story of a boy in New York who acts as a lookout for a robbery that goes wrong. He's arrested and his jail time before and during trial are harrowing, as everyone seems to see him as a monster. Eventually, he sees that, too... tough topic. Quick read, well worth it. ( )

I enjoyed this book. I liked the journal entries better than the film script parts though. Maybe that was because I read it too fast; I don't know. But I can say I have never read a novel like this before. ( )

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 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

A glossary runs along the bottom of the pages like footnotes. Also “Before you move on”, discussion or writing or thought-provoking questions.

TBR

While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken. Very powerful story about wrongful accusations.

3.5 Stars ( )

This book is written like a screenplay mixed with a diary, about/by a teenager in jail awaiting trial. He was somehow involved in a robbery that ended with someone being shot. I found the format to be novel but not especially compelling. I honestly could not understand why the kid was on trial at all, given the evidence, but that also is part of the point: guilt and innocence are beside the point in the American justice system. Thought-provoking in places but not something I'd go out of my way to recommend. ( )

[b:Monster|44184|Monster|Walter Dean Myers|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1393739414s/44184.jpg|1386643] is a book every teenager should read. It does a great job of showing how easy it is to get involved with something that will ruin the rest of your life. Even so, I do have a few criticisms of the book. I don't think that the screenplay format worked particularly well. At times it distracted from the main story and the building suspense. The courtroom scenes were way too brief and sometimes lacked sufficient background on the proceedings that teenagers probably wouldn't understand unless they had been in court themselves. Overall, it's a good book with a great message. ( )

M.O.N.S.T.E.R, this book had me at the end of my seat at the end of the story. The story line is very good and is very factual that happens in today’s world. Like Steve in this novel getting in trouble for a crime he never committed.

The book does a good job talking about what goes on throughout America where most police departments will blame someone with colored skin. The author does a great job describing what is going on. The setting for the book seems accurate as it is set in Harlem and Manhattan which is where a lot of crimes that happen in the book go on.

The main character is a African-American named Steve Harmon. Steve is on trial for a murder he didn’t commit during an armed robbery of a gas station. They just because he was in there a little bit before and he happens to be standing outside of the store they think that he was the look out for two men. The two men argued with the store owner and shot him point blank and the assistant of the store owner heard the gun go off and called the cops. He saw the two men run away. In trial the people who were there did not have any good evidence against Steve. He was in there for a short time and did not buy anything. Then he walked out of the store across the street and he was getting blamed for the murder of the gas station owner Mr. Nesbitt. The evidence that was provided through out the trial was very good. The author did a very good job with how the people were talking and how they were exchanging words.

The pathos was very good throughout the entire story. Walter Dean Myers did a very good job making sure that the reader had the emotion of what was going on in the trial and through the story. Because every person had some type of emotional appeal to the story.

If I were asked to recommend this to someone. I do not know if I would or not because of how boring the beginning is. You need to be very patient because the first eighty ish pages were pretty brutal but once you get the trial it gets very interesting and always has you at the end of your seat. But I really do not know anyone who wants to go through eighty pages of a book and think it is the most boring thing of all time. But if you are willing to get through the tough beginning I think you would love this book. I am surprised I made it through the book because of the tough beginning. The story is very easy to read I think just based on there not being many words on each page of the book. I really hope my review on this book can help anyone who is interested or wanting to read this book. ( )

I have wanted to read this book for a long while and I'm glad to have finally gotten to it. A lot of the story is written in screenplay format, since Steve Harmon, the sixteen-year-old main character, is a filmmaker. This didn't bother me since I come from a screenwriting background. However, each chapter begins with a look into the personal thoughts of Steve, like he's writing in his diary. It's a welcome addition because one of the drawbacks of screenwriting is anything that isn't seen or heard is not written. In screenwriting, we don't know what a character is thinking, unless it is intentional through voice over. The "diary entries" allow us to go deeper into Steve's head, to understand what he's going through better. The story unfolds predominently in a courtroom as Steve's fate is decided, with flashbacks peppered throughout. There's only so much depth you can portray in an screenplay. I think the book could have been even stronger had it been written as a straight novel, because being wrongly accused of felony murder at sixteen is compelling narrative. ( )

Written in a screen-play formate, "Monster" tells the story of Steve, an African American teenager on trial. This novel is a good choice to include in your classroom library, for it offers opportunities for students to experience diversity, the American legal system, race, and so much more. With the book being written like a script for a play or movie, this book can also be used as a way to introduce, and familiarize, students with reading scripts. ( )

16-year old Steve Harmon is on trial as the lookout man in a Harlem convenience store robbery gone wrong, and the manager is killed with his own gun. The story is told in a unorthodox manner, switching between entries in Steve's diary and an imagined screenplay. Portrayed as a monster, the reader is left to determine his guilt or innocence as a number of troubled youth/criminals testify against Steve. His own worries and thoughts are intertwined as the court case comes to its conclusion. ( )

diverse teen fiction (before there was even really diverse teen fiction; racial profiling of black teen who happened to be near a crime scene)
This has long been a favorite among students who know it, so I thought I'd (finally) pick it up.
It's written as a screenplay, so I didn't finish it, or even get very far in it, but this is probably a plus for a lot of kids who want the pages to move quickly. ( )

Monster was definitely an interesting read. It was written in script form which I believe fit the narrative well. It covered many deep themes such as racism, violence, crime and struggles. As a reader I felt like I was going on a journey with the main character, feeling empathy and struggle with him. I would have this book available in my future classroom. It can be a difficult read, but at the same time rewarding. ( )

Written in script form, not an easy read, but worth it.

This book still gives me chills.

This quick read is told mainly through the POV of a teenage boy who is on trial as one of the conspirators of a felony-murder resulting from a botched drugstore robbery. ( )

I enjoyed reading this book and as a budding teacher this is a book I would consider using in my classroom. ( )

With so many award logos on the cover, how could I pass it up? Love the unique structure to the book. ( )

This is a book I have known about for years. Not only have I seen its cover at my job, but it is one of the few older YA books I see in stores like _target. The story centers on Steve Harmon, a sixteen year old filmmaker on trial for being an accomplice in a Harlem drugstore stickup that accidentally turns deadly. Being dehumanized by the justice system before he is even convicted, Harmon decides to tell his story in the form of a script so that he has a voice to show the effects of this trial on himself and his loved ones. As a film-buff, I absolutely loved the screenplay format used to tell his realistic tale. In fact, I loved it so much that I am using it as an anchor text to develop my own lesson plan. Because this plan will ultimately touch upon more of Monster’s themes, I will leave my reaction to this novel at: I loved reading it. ( )

Half of those jurors...believed you were guilty the moment they laid eyes on you. You're young, you're Black, and you're on trial. What else do they need to know?

At sixteen years old, Steve Harmon is on trial as an accomplice to a murder. As a high school student with an interest in filmmaking, Steve records his time in jail and in the courtroom in the form of a screenplay, titling it what the prosecutor called him: Monster by author Walter Dean Myers.

Count this as the only time I've ever read a novel written as a movie. That immediately got my attention when I picked up this YA book on an impulse.

But what I came to appreciate most about the story? It didn't turn out to be the oversimple tale it could have been. It may be easy to string together a bunch of clichés concerning a hot button topic, to insert them into a predictable plot, and then—BAM!—you've got a novel about a hot social "issue."

This novel isn't that. Yes, it relevantly takes a social climate into account, but it isn't merely using that to spin a drama together, nor is it just a ride or a race to figure out whodunit. Rather, this is a story of lost innocence. It's a story of reflection, of questions.

Haunting questions.

And it seems to me, the novel's value is in getting readers, especially (but not only) young adults, to reflect. To question. Perhaps to even form a habit of reflecting, of seriously thinking about what's important, before trouble demands it. ( )