The Caldecott and Newbery Medals for children's literature and picture books have been awarded for many years. This year the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, has listed a new award for literature for young adult readers. The new award honors the late Michael L. Printz, school librarian from Topeka, Kan., known for discovering and promoting quality books for young adults.
The 2000 Printz Award will go to Walter Dean Myers, author of "Monster," which is illustrated by Myers' son, Christopher.MONSTER, by Walter Dean Myers, HarperCollins, 281 pages, $15.95
The plot could come from today's newspapers, where a teenager is accused of being involved in a robbery resulting in a shooting death. Sixteen-year-old Steven Harmon, who is black, has been named by the shooter as the lookout at a drug store shooting. The jury will decide his future.
According to his teachers, Steven is a good student. As the indictment proceeds, Steven writes down his impressions -- first in a journal and then as a screenplay. The reader learns of the convicts he shares a cell with. He receives visits from his family and is moved by the concern of a younger brother. But these are only short reprieves from the terror that the jail holds: "They left and there was still too much Sunday left in my life. "
The urgency of the trial is felt through Steven's own words:
"Anybody can walk into a drugstore and look around. Is that what I'm on trial for? I didn't do nothing!"
And the reality often leaves him without sight of a positive outcome. Other times he pulls the truth to the forefront.
"Who was Steve Harmon? I wanted to open my shirt and tell her to look into my heart to see who I really was, who the real Steve Harmon was . . . I know that in my heart I am not a bad person . . ."
This is a desperate story written with sensitivity. Intended for readers 12 years and up, it will keep them on the edge of their seats throughout. It is a fast read, since the handwritten journal and play entries are spread across pages in bold print.
"The idea for this book came to me most clearly as I sat in a courtroom watching the trial of a 17-year-old charged with armed robbery and attempted murder," explains Myers. Over the period of many months, Walter Dean Myers interviewed many criminals in a prison seeking the answer to one question: What are the steps that lead a person from innocence to a criminal act?
Although "Monster" is only a piece of that transition, it is written in a way that the finality of crime is apparent.
Walter Dean Myers is an acclaimed writer of fiction, nonfiction and poetry for young people. Winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for his contributions to young adult literature, he is also a two-time Newbery Honor and five-time Coretta Scott King Award recipient presented to black authors. "Monster" is the third collaboration between Myers and his son.