In this emotionally intense follow-up to the William C. Morris Debut Award finalist Dear Martin, Nic Stone explores the life of a 16-year-old Black male who's been wrongfully incarcerated for a crime he did not commit.
Quan had to struggle his entire childhood: his father was sentenced to 25 years when Quan was a young, and then his mother's boyfriend would deny the family money, making them go hungry. Quan tried his best to get good grades but, fighting seemingly insurmountable odds, his efforts proved futile. After he turned to the streets to support and protect himself and his siblings from his mother's boyfriend, Quan was unjustly arrested for shooting a cop. In prison, Quan's letters to and from his best friend, Justyce--who, following the events of Dear Martin, has become a law student at Yale and dedicated his life to advocating for wrongfully imprisoned young Black men--provide Quan with the love and care he needs to remain hopeful. Meanwhile, Justyce works diligently alongside friends and contacts he has made at Yale Law School to prove that Quan is innocent.
Stone uses flashbacks, intimate first-person letters and dual third-person perspectives to reflect the two very different realities in which Justyce and Quan live--despite their similar upbringings. Dear Justyce provides enough detail about the lives of Quan and Justyce that it can be enjoyed by new readers as well as those interested in more of the Dear Martin story. --Kharissa Kenner, children's librarian, Bank Street School for Children