Walter Dean Myers (1937–2014)

I decided not to hold off longer on reading this last book in what was, back in the 1990s, the first major young adult fiction series featuring a multicultural cast of main characters. A group of friends.

And when a serious racial issue directly involves these friends, it presents a new-to-them question one of them ponders on.

How could people who spent so much time together react so differently to the same event?

While the book does keep it all on a YA, "10 years and up" reader's level, I appreciate the nuance in this story—that it isn't oversimplified into a convenient (and unrealistic) black-and-white conflict with everybody having the exact same opinions as others of the same race. Unsurprisingly, the N-word comes up in the dialogue a couple of times, from Black characters speaking from experience or explaining their feelings.

Now, although the issue of "free speech" is a part of the plot, no one (neither the history buff in the core group, nor any grownup) points out the fact that the constitutional right to the freedom of speech in the US is the right not to be censored by the federal government. It isn't the right to just say anything you want anywhere you want at any time when the government isn't involved in the situation, including various situations at school. Granted, that fact may be kind of beyond the scope and the point of this quick "10 years and up" novel, but it's still important to know.

There's plenty more going on in the book as well, including with Murphy High's ecology club and the school's need for recycling; one of the teen characters with only a learner's permit, practicing driving with another teen; a mysterious "Mad Soaper" who's been writing soapy messages on the school's walls; and a personal matter that shakes up one of the group's families.

The story closes on sort of a sad but affirming note. It feels like a story ending but not the ending of a series, and my author's mind can only make some guesses at why the series stopped at twelve novels. Even so, given the prominent element of diversity that made this YA series groundbreaking in its time, having the core group finally face the particular issue they face here doesn't make for a bad last stop on this 18 Pine St. journey.… (mer)

In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.

Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.

The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)

-Kirkus Review… (mer)

Here we have Book Eleven in what was, back in the 1990s, the first major young adult fiction series featuring a multicultural cast of main characters. While Sky Man and Kwame's Girl remain my favorites of the series, this book is all right.

I'll admit the setup of the story didn't have my full buy-in, though. I mean, I wouldn't necessarily put it completely past a certain type of teacher to give an assignment like this. Still, why would you think it's a good idea to have your teenaged students keep diaries about their lives for class, and then to make them exchange the diaries so that their classmates can take them home to read and analyze?

It seems the best all-too-likely negative outcomes would be a lot of incomplete, inauthentic, or outright dishonest diaries written either by kids nervous about recording what they know isn't going to remain totally private, or kids making stuff up in attempts to make their diaries impressive. It's also likely that such an assignment would lead to a disaster of leaked secrets and lies, exchanged and misplaced diaries falling into the wrong hands, juicy journal rumors spreading around the school, and a whole lot of anger, hurt feelings, humiliation, the breaking-up of friendships and/or romantic couples—whether or not the rumors about the involved parties are true...

Come on. These are super-basic possibilities to consider. Why would a high school teacher even try a project like this?

Anywho. Despite the silly setup, what mainly plays out for the characters here isn't silly. Also, like other books in the series, the serious issue at the crux of the plot is supplemented by everyday adolescent adventures and shenanigans.

Those include a diary-homework cheating scheme that leads to some tomfoolery. A litter of kittens in need of homes. A younger sister dealing with her first boyfriend.

And, of course, there's enough here for some pre-cellphone, pre-internet, pre-streaming '90s nostalgia, like kids calling each other on home phones, watching movies by way of a VCR, and passing notes to each other in class on pieces of paper.

Tee-HEE!

Along the way through this series, I skipped three of the books, and the next one, Book Twelve, is the last. Don't know yet whether I'll read it sooner than later or if I might "save" it longer to keep the series from concluding for me.… (mer)