Monster by Walter Dean Myers

The story Monster, by  Walter Dean Myers, is about a boy who attends a film school, but is friends with members of gangs. He lives in a neighborhood that could be considered as unsafe with characters of questionable morals. In and around where he lives there are many gangs all of the blacks in the area are judged harshly. In this story the main character Steven is accused of being a part of a crime where a drugstore was robbed and the owner of the store gets shot and killed. Steve is arrested from his home  based on the accusations of a man that he has never met and brought to jail awaiting trial. While he is in jail he decided to write out all of his experiences as if it were a screen play and make it into a movie so that what was happening to him did not seem as bad. Steven was accused of being the lookout man in the plan, to have been the one to go into the store to make sure it was clear with no other customers or cops. When he left the store he was supposed to give the other two men the all clear. Although in the trial there was never any real evidence implicating him into the incident, even the witness that was there did not recognize him or see him there. Because there was no real evidence they had to let Steve go and make him not guilty.
Although I did like the way that they author set the book up as if it were a screen play i would not do that for my own book.
The reason I choose this book as my mentor text is because the main character is very similar to my main character. Emily is caught in the middle of a murder trial of a man. In my story she is involved in the robbery of a convienent store and she is meant to be the lookout. It is her job to go into the store and make sure that no one else is there and to then give her boyfriend and his friends the all clear. Although she decides that it is immoral and backs out, but her friends go ahead with the plan and the manager gets shot. When she is on trial she goes through the same stages of panic that Steven did which has helped me in my writing for Emily's reaction once she gets to jail.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and suggest it to others to read, it was a good book and did not take me very long to read. It was nice and relaxing to enjoy over vacation, and a great mentor text for the story I am writing.