Dear Martin
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4.1 • 49 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOKS EVER • The revolutionary debut novel about a young Black teen grappling with racism and police violence—and what it all means for his future.
“A powerful, wrenching, and compulsively readable story that lays bare the history, and the present, of racism in America.”—JOHN GREEN, author of The Fault in Our Stars and Hollywood, Ending
“A must-read.”—ANGIE THOMAS, author of The Hate U Give
Justyce McAllister is a good kid. An honor student. Always there to help a friend.
So why is he the one in handcuffs?
Despite leaving his rough neighborhood, Justyce McAllister can’t seem to escape the scorn of his former peers or the attitude of his new classmates at Braselton Prep. Captain of the debate team and Ivy League–bound, Justyce has studied the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But do they hold up now? He starts a journal addressed to Dr. King to find out.
Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up—way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. And in the media fallout, it’s Justyce who is under attack.
WILLIAM C. MORRIS AWARD FINALIST
Look for more from Nic Stone:
DEAR JUSTYCE • DEAR MANNY
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First-time author Stone explores an African-American student's increasingly intense feelings of displacement in his predominantly white high school in a tense story that will grab readers' attention and make them think. Written as a mixture of script-style dialogues, third-person narrative, and letters to Martin Luther King Jr., the novel explores high school senior Justyce McAllister's confrontations with racism and his search for identity at a prestigious prep school, where he is one of only eight black students. After nearly getting arrested while trying to help his ex-girlfriend, who's "stone drunk" and trying to drive herself home, Justyce becomes acutely aware of racial profiling and prejudice close to home. Pushed to the brink of despair when a close friend is shot by a white off-duty police officer, Justyce doesn't know what to do with his anger. Though some characters are a bit one-dimensional (including Justyce's debate partner/romantic interest and the interchangeable bros at his school), this hard-hitting book delivers a visceral portrait of a young man reckoning with the ugly, persistent violence of social injustice. Ages 14 up.)
