The more things seem to change, the more they stay the same. Walter Dean Myers first published
Monster in 1999; over twenty years later, the profound themes centered around the criminality of Black boyhood and coping with trauma continue to plague young Black men across the country. The story follows Steve Harmon, a 16-year-old boy on trial for murder because of his supposed involvement in the murdering of a Harlem drugstore owner. In this narrative, Steve becomes a “pawn” in the system, forced to play by the cynical rules of those in power as he is “forced to think about who he is as he faces prison, where he may spend all the tomorrows of his life.”