Written by Nic Stone, Dear Martin is a diary-style novel about a less prestigious African American boy in an elite high school called Justyce who has been struggling with his identity. He started a Martin project where he pretends to write letters to Martin Luther King Jr. about the worries and problems he runs into. The project helps Justyce to imagine how Martin would solve the problems if Martin was the one facing the problems. Stone uses this method to prompt the reader to think from the perspective of Justyce, as if we are the narrator that wants to ask for help from Dr. King.

Have you ever been stereotyped based on your race? I know I have, as has Justyce, which allowed me to connect to the main character. But while reading, I found myself shocked. I never thought racial discrimination could take away the life of Justyce’s best friend that easily, and it makes me wonder how, if I was in Justyce’s shoes, I would respond to my mother’s non-supportive attitude of me dating hetero-race people.

As an Asian-American female, I did not expect that I would relate to Justyce—an African-American male— as much as I did. We are both high school students, we run into people we like, classmates with whom we do not agree on certain things, struggles of trying to fulfill parents’ expectations in both academic and personal life, misunderstandings, and maybe a happy ending, or not. I believe all of us can find many similarities with Justyce. For instance, when Justyce runs into classmates who insult him and his friends he chose to fight them back. What would you do if others teased your friends?

Two elements that kept me on track with the book were the unsolved questions and the tiny details in the story. Stone did not tell us whether Justyce ends up dating the girl he likes right away; instead, she keeps us wondering about the uncertainties that Justyce faces including whether his mother allows him to date this Jewish girl, and whether the girl accepts the admiration of Justyce. It is the little believable and relatable details, such as Justyce scoring perfectly on the ACT, that Stone includes in the story make it more realistic and relatable in real life.

By the portrayal of Stone, every character in the story is extremely vivid, which allowed me to relate each of the characters to my own classmates. Her style of writing makes you step into Justyce's world and experience the growth along with him as he struggles through various problems that might also come to me one day in real life. Let’s read the story of Justyce and experience his powerful innermost thoughts! Do you have a secret audience to write to?