Dear Justyce by Nic Stone

 

I will start by saying if you have not read Dear Martin, you should! This book, Dear Justyce by Nic Stone, is a companion novel. Quan is a character that appears in Dear Martin and his story simply needed to be told. This much is made clear in the author's letter to the reader at the beginning of the book. She writes of a text conversation she had with a couple boys she meet when Dear Martin was published and how they felt that story, while awesome, did not truly reflect their own life experiences. Thus, we get to peek into Quan's life. Quan lives in a poor house with a single mom who has a jerk of a boyfriend and a dad who is in jail. Though Quan tries his best to stay out of trouble and to do well in school, he always feels that it's just not good enough. Trouble always finds him. He gets blamed for things he didn't do and that leads him to make some "new friends." Those new friendships end up with Quan getting sent behind bars for a crime he swears he did not commit. In order to cope, Quan writes letters to his old friend Justyce...(which should remind you of Justyce writing letters to Martin Luther King Jr. in Dear Martin). 

This friendship is something that Quan clings to. The letters keep him going. The letters give him hope. But is it realistic to have hope when so many times that hope has turned out to be foolish?

I strongly encourage the reader to not only read this book, but also read the author's note at the end of the book as well as the Acknowledgement section at the end. The author drops some knowledge on you if you stick it out that far! Awesome read! You will not be disappointed.  (Actually, I think I may propose an afternoon book club for my classes tomorrow so we can read this together!)

-TK