Dear Justyce

Dear Ms. Stone,

I wanted to take the time to thank you and tell you how amazing your books were. I first read Dear Martin as a choice book for my English class. I wasn't very interested in the book at first, but after reading a few pages, I grew a connection to Justyce, even though our lives are very different.

Justyce is not like a lot of the teenagers I know today: he didn't smoke weed or sell drugs, and he wasn’t affiliated with any gang. He was a smart kid who got good grades and cared deeply about his loved ones. I was highly impressed by Justyce. He knew how to keep his cool around police officers, he had a set plan for his future, and on top of that, he lived in a ghetto and was able to make it to a prestigious college. Justyce had great grades, family and friends, and a teacher who actually cared about him. With all that positivity Justyce had, he still had to encounter negativity in the form of racism. I can relate to Justyce because even though our lives are very different, it feels the same. Everything was going great in his life: he just got accepted into college and got his girlfriend, then boom his friend Manny gets killed by a police officer. I can relate to this because my friend also got shot because of senseless hate at a time when everything was going good for me. Justyce was a role model with everything that happened to him; he still looked outward into the future to better his life and then used what he learned to help Quan's life.

Vernell Laquan Banks, also known as ¨Quan,¨ wasn't like Justyce: he stole, smoked weed, sold drugs, and was failing school. Most people would look at Quan and automatically assume he is a bad person. Quan and Justyce did live in the same neighborhood but went to different schools and hung with different people. I can relate to Quan even more than Justyce: Quan´s father was arrested when he was young, and my dad left before I was born, so I feel a connection just from that. We both didn't have positive male figures growing up. In Dear Justyce, Quan is arrested for a murder he did not commit, and he sat in jail for over a year for it. I understand what he was going through: I have been to jail three times, each time scarier than the last. It felt like I was suffocating under water with no life jacket, so I knew how Quan felt: lonely and hopeless. Quan is an inspiration to a lot of kids like me. Quan showed me that just because I went down the wrong road doesn't mean I can't turn around on the next one. He never stopped fighting: he got his diploma and got out of jail. Today I am working on my diploma and am only a few credits away. Just like Quan, I won´t stop until I have it. 

Thank you, Nic Stone, for sharing these amazing stories with me; they touched my heart and showed me a little more of the world we live in. I can't wait for the next book!!!