MLK'S NAME INVOKED BY YA NOVEL

A WRITER'S WIT
If that voice that you created that is most alive in the poem isn't carried throughout the whole poem, then I destroy where it's not there, and I reconstruct it so that that voice is the dominant voice in the poem. 
​Philip Levine
Author of The Simple Truth
Born January 10, 1928

P. Levine

MY BOOK WORLD

Stone, Nic. Dear Martin: A Novel. New York: Penguin Random, 2017.

A Black teenage boy about to matriculate at an Ivy League school faces a number of lifechanging challenges. Not only does Justyce have deep feelings for a white Jewish girl who also likes him but he becomes involved in two escalating events with police officers in his city. During one of these incidents, he and his best friend are shot by an officer. To deal with his trials and tribulations, Justyce writes letters to the late Martin Luther King as if he is a living mentor. The author handles with depth and sensitivity all that Justyce must go through to grow as a person. I like how Stone uses “news bulletins” from local TV stations to bring readers up to date on events, as well as an interesting font to distinguish Justyce’s letters to MLK. In dialogue, Stone utilizes a playscript format, eliminating the need for quite so many “they said” situations. Not only a very moving book but a stylishly presented one, as well.

Up Next:
​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Edward St. Aubyn
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Jenny Nimmo
THURS: A Writer's Wit | William Kennedy
FRI: My Book World | Ann Patchett, ​The Magician's Assistant 

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