Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Myers, Walter Dean (1999). Monster. New York: Scholastic Inc.  

Summary:  Steve Harmon is 16-year-old black high school student on trial for being the lookout in the robbery of a drug store in Harlem, New York during which the owner was shot and killed.  To bring comfort to the deep terror he faces both in the courtroom and in the detention center, Steve narrates his experience in the form of a screen play.

Additional comments:  An intense story presented in a unique and dramatic style. Readers will anxiously flip the pages to see if justice is served in the end.  Raises many questions about racism in the justice system, what is honesty, and reconciling self-identity and the judgment by others.