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Title details for Monster by Walter Dean Myers - Available

Monster

by Walter Dean Myers
Full Cast
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Read by a full cast
2 hours 34 minutes, 2 cassettes
1999 National Book Award Finalist
Parent's Guide to Children's Media Honors
Publishers Weekly Best Books of 1999
Horn Book Honor Book
A Harlem drugstore owner was shot and killed in his store, and the word is that 16-year-old Steve Harmon served as the lookout. Was he involved or was he simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? An amateur filmmaker, Steve transcribes his trial into a movie script, showing scene by scene how his life was turned around in an instant.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    May 27, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780739344514
      • File size: 74738 KB
      • Duration: 02:35:42

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 420
    • Text Difficulty: 1-2

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      What if you were 16 years old, on trial for felony murder, and your degree of guilt had become confused within your own mind? How would you discover the truth? Monster, winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, is written as the screenplay that prisoner Steve Harmon creates during his incarceration and trial, in an attempt to reconstruct and reconfigure the events of the crime. The production is recorded as a full-cast dramatization, and it's difficult to imagine how it might have been accomplished more effectively. The youth and innocence of Jeron Alston's voice, as Steve, summons the listener into his limited reality and serves as a counterpoint to the authenticity of the courtroom drama, presented through the voices of the prosecutor, the D.A., the defendants, and the witnesses. Flashbacks deliver the backstory and raise essential doubts in the mind of the listener. A superb recording of an intriguing work. T.B. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 14, 2001
      . "Myers bends the novel form for this riveting courtroom drama that explores the guilt or innocence of a teenage boy involved in a murder," wrote PW
      in a Best Books citation. Ages 12-up.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Young Steve Harmon, the 16-year-old narrator, is a promising filmmaker who, in an attempt to get some distance from the felony murder he is charged with and the bleakness of his future if convicted, narrates the story of his trial in the form of a movie screenplay he might make. This interesting idea is fraught with unfortunate consequences for both reader and listener. Peter Francis James, at his best with the rolling cadences of Southern Black dialect, is forced into a series of annoying interruptions: "voice over . . ." and "cut to . . ." Young Steve Harmon gets his distance, but, unfortunately, so does the listener. A compelling story and powerful reader are offered up to a gimmicky form. P.E.F. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 31, 1999
      In this riveting courtroom drama, Steve Harmon, a Harlem teenager involved in a murder, recounts his trial in the form of a movie script. The objectivity with which he records testimony and flashbacks of events leading up to the crime ("Steve is sitting on a bench, and James King sits with him. King is bleary-eyed and smokes a joint as he talks") belies the deep emotions Steve expresses in his prison journal: "I go to bed every night terrified out of my mind. I have nightmares whenever I close my eyes." Readers will not question the 16-year-old's relationship to the crime; that is established early in the novel. However, opinions will vary as to whether Steve deserves sympathy or rebuke. Myers (Scorpions; Somewhere in the Darkness) masterfully conveys the complexity of Steve's character by presenting numerous angles of his personality. From the prosecuting attorney's point of view, he is a "monster." According to a character witness, Steve's high-school film teacher, Steve is "an outstanding young man... talented, bright, and compassionate." The only person who does not offer a clear, pat appraisal of Steve is Steve himself. Even after the verdict is delivered he is not able to make sense of who he is: the final image of him filming himself as he gazes into a mirror, searching for his identity ("I want to look at myself a thousand times to look for one true image") will leave a powerful, haunting impression on young minds. This would make an ideal companion to Virginia Walter's Making Up Megaboy for an insightful look at a teenage suspect's lost innocence. Ages 12-up.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:420
  • Text Difficulty:1-2

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