summary of Monster by Walter Dean Myers Steve Harmon who is just 16 years old tells the story of his and James King's trial for the murder of Mr Nesbitt the owner of a drugstore during an attempted robbery in Harlem six months earlier Steve tells the story of the 11 days between the beginning of the case and the jury's decision through his own notes and a script he writes in his notebook the name Monster comes from what Sandra Petrocelli the state's attorney called him in court on Monday the first day of the trial Steve sits with his lawyer Kathy O'Brien and listens to petrocelli's opening statements according to the state James King and Richard Bobo Evans tried to Rob Mr Nesbitt at a drugstore in late December but Mr Nesbitt accidentally shot himself with his own gun the government says that Steve Harmon and Osvaldo Cruz who was 14 at the time were both Lookouts during the robbery and are therefore also legally responsible for the man's death no one was there when the murder happened but petrocelli's first key witness is a man who says he knows something that links King and Bobo Evans to the crime the man himself is a prisoner who is giving a statement so that his own term will be cut ASA Briggs King's lawyer questions the witness's ability to be fair because he stands to gain something from speaking Steve's mind keeps going back to violent scenes from his childhood in Harlem even though he never looked for trouble himself Steve writes on Tuesday about how much he hates jail and how scared he is because everyone there is violent and only talks about hurting each other one of them has a knife and they attack people for no reason in return for a shorter term Petrocelli brings to court another criminal who tells the same story as the first again Briggs questions the witness's neutrality and morality when Briggs gets angry the judge puts off the hearing until the next day that night Steve is in bed while two other prisoners beat and rape another person he thinks about how much he misses his younger brother Jerry Steve wakes up on Wednesday and thinks about how in jail they take away people's shoelaces and belts so they can't kill themselves Steve can't help but think of himself as a monster just like Petrocelli called him Steve Knows Why O'Brien told him that it was her job to make the judges see him as a person detective Carol who supposedly looked into the murder and made the arrests is brought into court by Petrocelli to speak even though he never found any proof at the crime scene Steve thinks back to the night Carol and his partner asked him his first question even though Steve is only a kid Carol thought he was guilty right away and said he hoped he would be put to death back in the courtroom Briggs says that Carol didn't do any real research but instead just found a few prisoners who would speak for him O'Brien fears that none of this makes Steve look more innocent since half of the jury will think he's guilty just because he's a young black man Steve had to be careful not to upset 14 year old Osvaldo Cruz in Harlem because he is part of a dangerous gang Cruz says that bobo threatened him and forced him to take part in the robbery against his will Steve writes about his friendship with O'Brien on Thursday he can tell that O'Brien wants to know who he really is and Steve wants her to know that he's a good person but he doesn't know how to make her see that in the courtroom Osvaldo keeps talking about King Bobo and Steve he is giving this evidence in return for an acquittal because he is Young and says he was forced to take part but Briggs and O'Brien cross-examine Osvaldo and cause him to admit that he is not only a gang member with a History of Violence but that he is also at least once acted violently towards strangers for no reason this makes it hard to believe that he was afraid of Bobo later Steve goes to see his father Mr Harmon but when he does he learns that he and his father no longer get along he thinks that his dad now looks at him and sees a monster Steve also remembers hearing about the murder on the news and being taken into custody two weeks later on Friday for minor Witnesses speak while Steve thinks about Mr Nesbitt who is lying on the floor and knows he is about to die Steve learns from the medical examiner's evidence that Mr Nesbitt was shot through the lung and drowned in his own blood before he died he is very scared Steve thinks about how bad it would be to spend the next 20 years of his life in jail which seems to be the most likely thing to happen even though O'Brien will still protect him he knows that she thinks he is guilty Mrs Harmon goes to see Steve in jail but Steve knows it hurts her too much to see her son locked up Steve lies in bed at night and thinks about how innocent he is he remembers that King told him he was going to rob a place and asked Steve if he wanted to help Steve goes to a church service in the jail on Sunday but a fight breaks out and everyone is locked down for the night he thinks about how outside of jail nothing seems real anymore not his thoughts of his old life and not the baseball game on TV even though Jerry is too young to be in jail Steve's parents walk him by the window so Steve can see him Steve wouldn't be able to get in either if he wasn't a prisoner Steve fears about Monday which is a big day for the defense and when his parents stop by for a short time on Monday a woman says that she was in the shop right before the murder and saw King and one other guy come in she says she had trouble recognizing King though she left the shop as soon as she saw the two guys fighting with Mr Nesbit next Bobo Evans says what he knows in exchange for a shorter term King told Bobo that Steve was supposed to keep an eye out for them and Bobo saw Steve go into and out of the drugstore and walk away after that he and King went into Mr nesbitt's room and fought with him when Mr Nesbitt pulled out a gun King grabbed it from him and shot him he then stole money and smokes from the man and went with him to a fast food place to buy some food and hide Briggs and O'Brien cross-examined Bobo and get him to say that he never actually talked to Steve or threatened Osvaldo to help them with the robbery Osvaldo wanted to be a part of the heist Petrocelli says that the case has come to an end on Tuesday O'Brien says that Steve's situation doesn't look good Bobo's evidence was very bad and Briggs is going to try to link King to Steve even though Steve is obviously a good kid this will make King look better King's cousin makes a weak excuse for where King was on the day of the murder O'Brien wants Steve to come to court and say that he is a good kid she tells him how to answer and Steve understands that telling the truth isn't as important as making the right case Steve says in court that he wasn't near the shop on the day of the murder because he was working on a movie Project all week however he has quietly admitted that he was there he also says that he doesn't know King very well he's just a guy he sometimes saw on the field when people were playing ball when Steve is done his film teacher Mr sawicki gives a character witness and says that Steve is an honest sensitive kid who makes positive films about his neighborhood Briggs says his final words and says that his client King has nothing to do with Bobo Evans and had nothing to do with the robbery in her closing comments O'Brien says the same thing about Steve she also says that there is not enough proof against Steve to put a young kid in jail for the rest of his life the jury goes away to think about what to do and Stephen King are taken back to jail on Friday Steve and King are taken back to court to hear what the jury decided King is found guilty of felony murder and given the right punishment Steve is found to be innocent he opens his arms to give O'Brien a hug but she turns away quickly he stays with his arms spread as the picture blurs and Fades until Steve's figure looks like some strange Beast a monster about the author Walter Dean Myers was born in 1937 in Martinsburg West Virginia when Myers was two years old his mother died he moved in with florenstein who was his real father's first wife and her husband Herbert Dean they raised him in Harlem which is in New York City in honor of his parents Myers changed his given name from Milton to Dean his youth was shaped by his church and the neighborhood where he lived even though Myers loved to read he had trouble in school and with other people this was partly because he had a speech problem which made him a target for bullies and gave him a reputation for getting into fights a lot of Meyer's High School teachers knew he wouldn't finish but he was a good reader and writer so he told him to keep writing no matter what he did or where he went Myers quit High School when he was 17 and joined the army just as his teacher said he would he was in the Army for three years and got out just before the Vietnam War started Myers was always a big reader but it worried him that all of the heroes in his books were white but after reading the works of African-American writer James Baldwin Myers was inspired to write about what it was like to be black in America in the middle of the 20th century Myers started spending his evenings writing after working on building sites all day he did this because he remembered what his master had said where does the day go a book for kids that came out in 1968 and won a council on interracial books for children award was Myers's first book Myers then spent the next 45 years writing books during that time he published more than 100 books for children young adults and adults who don't like to read fantasy he got the prestigious Coretta Scott King award five times this award is given to African-American writers the American Library Association says that his novel Fallen Angels which was published in 1988 and is about the Vietnam war is one of the books that is most often banned in America because it tells the truth about the war Walter Dean Myers who was 76 years old when he died hope we summarized it fully and you liked it please hit the like button and subscribe to our channel so that we are motivated to create more videos