Summer Reading July 7th Second Post

Most of the characters so far are not that complex. They are very clear what they want. Steve want a fair punishment for his crime. Sandra Petrocelli wants to help Steve achieve his goal. Kathy O'Brien wants to make Steve pay for what he has done. From all of these wants and desires a lot of conflict between the characters show up. A theme that constantly shows up in my book is peer pressure. Steve is pressured into robbing a store. He was trying to prove his "manhood". Also racial profiling is starting to show up. Just because Steve is of the African race people think that since he was arrested he automatically committed the crime. The way this book is structured is pretty cool. It is all through the eyes of a security camera. It tells you exactly what the camera is seeing. When it zooms in and zooms out. What it hears and what it sees. You can hear what people are saying in the courtroom and in the audience. The way this book is presented and structured really helps the way you see the story and also it helps let you see what actually goes on in the courtroom. So far the way this book is structured is one of the best reads of my life.

Summer Reading July 7th First Post

The book I am reading this summer is Monster by Walter Dean Myers.The major characters that have shown up in this book so far are Steve Harmon (16 year old boy accused of murder), Sandra Petrocelli ( Prosecutor), Kathy O'Brien (Defense Attorney), and James King. The setting for the book so far is in the Manhattan Detention Center. There is a lot of conflict between the characters. The main conflict so far is that Steve Harmon wants fair punishment for what he has done. Some other small conflicts are, Kathy O'Brien and Sandra Petrocelli arguing over what is right and fair punishment for Steve Harmon. From how this book started off and where it is going I believe that Steve Harmon will get some sort of unfair punishment for what he has done. By doing this it will move the plot forward and make it more interesting. I do believe that Steve will receive the death penalty. This was mentioned earlier in the book but Sandra Petrocelli said that she would try to convince the Judge and Jury that that punishment would not be necessary. I wonder what will be Steve's punishment? Also, I wonder what the witnesses have to say about what happened? How will this book carry on with the trial? This book reminds me of all the courthouse/law television shows like Judge Judy and Judge Alex. Both of these works take place in a courthouse but one of them is a lot more serious than the other. This novel involves a murder case and the other works involve stealing and other small stuff. So far this book has been really interesting seeing how a courtroom works and I can't wait to get deeper into this book.