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Monster is a 1999 young adult novel by Walter Dean Myers
. It was the first-ever Michael L. Printz Award recipient, an ALA Best Book, a Coretta Scott King Honor selection, and a National Book Award finalist. Monster is told as a first-person account by Steve Harmon, a Black teenager on trial for felony murder in New York. Steve tells his story through handwritten notes as in a journal and a typewritten screenplay. Foregrounding the racism and injustice of the legal system, the novel is a crime story, a courtroom drama, and an account of a young teen’s search for identity. Monster was adapted into a movie of the same name in 2018.Read the full book summary, the full book analysis, and explanations of important quotes from Monster.