Cameron: "Deep inside, you know that whoever gets up in your face gets there because he knows you're nothing, and he knows that you know it too." Carla: "What I'm trying to do is to get by -- not even get over, just get by." Leonard: "I have bought a gaw-juss weapon. It lies beneath my bed like a secret lover, quiet, powerful, waiting to work my magic." Statement of Fact: 17-year-old white male found dead in the aftermath of a shooting incident at Madison High School in Harrison County. Conclusion: Death by self-inflicted wound. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

In this chilling cautionary tale, Myers revisits the themes of his Monster and Scorpions in a slightly more detached structure, but the outcome is every bit as moving. The novel opens with what serves as a cover sheet to a "Threat Analysis Report," which, in its mission statement, makes mention of "the tragic events of last April." Gradually, readers discover that Len Gray killed a fellow high school student before taking his own life. Through transcripts of various adults questioning Len's friends, Cameron Porter and Carla Evans, readers get to form their own opinions about how much these two may or may not have contributed to the events of that day. Myers sculpts every character here in three dimensions, including the interviewers. Dr. Ewings, the psychologist, shows compassion toward Cameron, and therefore the 17-year-old reveals to him the most intimate details of his friendship with Len and also his home life. Cameron's interview with FBI Special Agent Victoria Lash, on the other hand, puts Cameron on the defensive. When she pointedly questions Cameron about what she calls his "money-conscious" parents, he tells the agent, "They make more than most people. They make more than you do. Does that bother you?" to which she replies, "I'm white and you're black, does that bother you?" Here, no one is completely innocent and no one is entirely to blame. A myriad of small occurrences add up to the tragic outcome: blind spots on the part of teachers and coaches, parents who are consumed with their own lives and not considering how their actions have an impact on their children. Myers takes no shortcuts: all three teens are smart (readers get to know Len through his journal entries, handwritten in a somewhat deranged-looking scrawl and included as an appendix); all three consider themselves outsiders. Readers will find themselves racing through the pages, then turning back to pore over the details once more. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 8 Up-Six months after a deadly shooting at a suburban high school, educators and psychological and criminal experts compile their interviews and analyses to assess any ongoing threat in the school environment. Through these documents, Myers skillfully tells the story of the shooting, its precipitating causes, and the aftermath for the shooter's closest friends. As in Robert Cormier's The Rag and Bone Shop (Delacorte, 2001), readers are made aware of the realistic and insidious biases different interrogators bring to their investigations. Seventeen-year-old Cameron Porter, the deceased shooter's closest friend, expresses himself one way when being debriefed by a psychologist and necessarily comes across differently when questioned by an FBI agent. Readers also are shown how such diverse types of inquiry are committed to paper with subtle but telling differences, as one interviewer asks that the transcriber retain Porter's pauses while the other directs the transcriber specifically to omit them. Other characters include the boys' one female friend, and, ultimately, Len, the shooter himself, through the clearly disturbed pages of his diary in the months leading up to the "incident." Myers uses no narrative frame other than the documents themselves and excels in providing clear and distinct voices through these interviews, notes, and reports; only the newspaper items lack a genuine ring. In addition to young adults who will find this story intensely readable as well as intense, adults working with teens should read and discuss the questions and implications that the tale reveals.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr. 7-12. Like Myers' Printz Award book, Monster (1999), this story is told from multiple viewpoints, and questions of guilt and innocence drive the plot and stay with the reader. This time there's a shooting in a high school. Len, a senior, commits suicide after he shoots a star football player and injures several others in the schoolyard. The actual facts of that carnage emerge slowly, as Len's best friend, Cameron, is interviewed at length by a therapist, a sheriff, and a threat-prevention specialist. Adding more perspective are newspaper and police reports, and Len's personal journal, which reveals his fury and hurt about his macho father and school bullies. The multiple narratives move the story far beyond case history, the chatty interview format is highly readable, and Cameron's voice is pitch perfect. One of the few black students in the school, he's an outsider like Len, but he's quiet about it, an ordinary guy. He doesn't want to stand out; he does nothing about the racism implicit in an image of Martin Luthering on a shooting-range practice target, and he's ashamed. It's this bystander role readers will want to talk about, as well as who is to blame. Why does Cameron just go along with things? What about the parents, the principal, the counselors who knew about the bullying and tell Len to grow up ? --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2004 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Walter Dean Myers was born on August 12, 1937 in Martinsberg, West Virginia, into a very poor family. When he was three years old, he was adopted by Herbert and Florence Dean, who lived in Harlem. He began writing stories while still in his teens but had little hope of becoming a professional writer because, coming from a family of laborers, he too was expected to work with his hands.

However, Myers refused to accept the notion that because he was black and poor he was restricted in what he could do. He enlisted in the army on his 17th birthday, and while there he read everything he could. After completing his army service, he took what jobs he could while continuing to write. He entered and won a 1969 contest sponsored by the Council on Interracial Books for Children, which led to the publication of his first book for children, Where Does the Day Go?

He has written more than 30 fiction and nonfiction books for children and young adults. Aside from telling good stories, he strives to convey what he learned while young. His message to black youth is that although growing up is not easy and reality can be harsh, young African Americans can succeed despite the odds against them. His other works include Fallen Angels, The Righteous Revenge of Artemis Bonner, Now Is Your Time, and Jazz. He has won the Coretta Scott King Award for African American authors five times. In addition to the publication of his books, he leads a writing workshop for children in a school in Jersey City, New Jersey.

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.