Dear Kathy,

Do you remember the book we read last year in class? Yes, you are right; it was The Giver by Lois Lowry. Fortunately, we decided this year that it would be nice to read and then to discuss a book in class again. Consequently, Mr. Nürnberger presented us a few appropriate books from which we have chosen Monster by Walter Dean Myers. Have you ever heard about it? Perhaps, since you enjoy reading so much you read the German issue of it. From my point of view, the reasons why the class has chosen this book are the narrative techniques. Mr. Nürnberger, who was reading it at that moment, informed us about them and they were completely different to the traditional ones. The author tells the story on the one hand as a film script and on the other hand you can also find diary entries of the main character. I'm sure that you can't imagine exactly what I mean, can you? But I'm going to send you additionally an excerpt of the book. To my mind, I can say that these foreign narrative techniques made me some problems at the beginning, because it's difficult to get used to it. But after having read about 25 pages it wasn't a problem anymore. After a while, I really enjoyed reading a book written like this because it offers you a change. The reader keeps thinking and attending, which is very important in this case, all the time. But unfortunately, this problem wasn't the only one to solve. There was also one of vocabulary. Since the story is set in Harlem, the author uses Black English, which can be completely different to the ordinary English language. The language fits pretty well together with the story, because it tells about a six-teen-year old boy who was arrested and put on trial for his part of a robbery in which a drugstore owner was coincidentally killed. The story is set in a courtroom and in a Detention Centre in New York City in the 1990s. The boy, who is accused of having given a sign to two other men that the coast was free and consequently of having served as lookout of a hold-up happened the 22nd December last year in the drugstore on the 145th Street in Harlem, is called Steve Harmon and, of course, he is the main character of the book. In general, Steve is a completely normal boy who lives with his parents and his younger brother Jerry but with reference to his skin colour, which is black, the police think that he must be involved in something criminal. Though a few witnesses testify that Steve played a very important role in the robbery and that he joined in voluntarily, he says that he is innocent and that he should be acquitted. As result, the jury has to decide either to believe Steve or to believe the witnesses, who are almost inmates themselves. That also explains why there are doubts about their honesty. It follows that even Steve starts considering his innocence. In contrast to the witnesses who are also prisoners, Mr. Sawicki, who is Steve's film class teacher, testifies that he must be innocent because he is a very nice and polite person. But finally, Kathy O'Brien, who is Steve's defense attorney, and the two testimonials, which say that he is innocent, from his film class teacher and himself convince the jury that he was not involved in the robbery. But the other man, James King, who is put on trial for killing the drugstore owner, is convicted. I hope this summary gives you a little insight into the background story. What do you think about the item? Is it a book you would like to read? In my opinion, it's interesting to read because of the conflict "guilt vs. innocence". Though Steve is acquitted, there are not any indications that he is really innocent. You can say that there is an open ending, like we had last year with The Giver. The book ends with a question, which is: "What did she see?". This sentence refers to his defense attorney Kathy O'Brien who doesn't want to hug him but turns away after the judge has announced that he is acquitted. While reading the book, Steve always considers his own innocence. He doesn't know if he is lying to himself, because he doesn't want to be like a MONSTER. Therefore, we can't say who Steve is. There is no possibility to identify his personality and to receive an indication if he is innocent or not. Every reader has to think about his own interpretation or solution after having finished reading the book. A few people in our class said that they don't like endings like this one because they will never get to know the truth. But I think especially this makes the book more interesting because you are challenged and you are completely free in your thoughts. What do you think about it? And what kind of ending do you prefer? The way I see the situation, Steve is guilty. My first reason are the testimonies of the witnesses. The next one is that the relationship between his father and him becomes looser. I think the father can judge very well if his own son is innocent or not. Additionally, I can say that it seems strange to my opinion that someone, who is innocent, isn't really convinced that he really is. Either you are innocent or you are not. Unfortunately, a lot of young people who live in Harlem or the Bronx have no other choice to earn their money as to become a criminal. It's almost impossible to get a correct and frequent school education and to make an appropriate job. Didn't you visit New York last year when you arrived in America for you exchange year? Did you perhaps also visit Harlem? Yesterday, I read an article in the internet about a girl with our age from the Bronx who has never done anything else except of cooking, cleaning and caring for her younger sisters and brothers. Of course, her parents aren't able to support her because they have to work the entire day to earn enough money to buy essential things. After having read this article I was able to understand - without answering the question if he is innocent or guilty- Steve a little bit better. Of course, in addition to our discussion of the book, we made all our own reading-logs. It is very interesting to read them because it presents the opinion of several people in a different way. A few wrote dialogues which hasn't existed in the book yet, continued to write a final ending with an exact solution or even wrote poems to express the feeling of Steve better. Have you ever done something like this in America? In conclusion, our class decided to create an own homepage for MONSTER. At the moment, we are talking about what to publish on it. Perhaps you can say what you are interested in? Well, anyway, now I have informed you about our latest news but what have you been up to? I would be glad to hear that you are fine and I'm really looking forward to receive an answer soon.

All the best,
Julia