Monster

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 who is the prosecutor called me … Monster. A shopkeeper is killed during an armed robbery in New York. Sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon is arrested. The prosecutor is pushing for the death penalty. The only way Steve can cope with the terrifying ordeal of the trial is to tell his story like a film script, with flashbacks to events leading to the robbery. His diary records the grim brutality of nights spent in a jail cell, and his growing confusion about his own identity. Who is the real Steve Harmon: is he guilty or is he innocent? Monster is a gripping story of crime, truth and responsibility, by one of America’s best writers for young people. Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature for young adults.