 Simon and Schuster Audio presents. Dear Justice, by Nick Stone. Read for you by Dion Graham, with a note read by the author. For Danny Ayers, you will always be my hero. Dear reader, I didn't really intend to write this book. Sound familiar? It should. It's what I say about writing Dear Martin. It's as true now as it was then, though my reasoning's a little different. When I closed the back cover of that story, I told myself I was done with Justice McAllister and the world he inhabited. He'd reached a place of relative peace and come to a deeper understanding of his role as the captain of his own life ship. I felt good, as a book mom, about setting him free to decide where he was headed next and how he'd get there. But then came the day I received a set of text messages from a pair of boys I'd met because of Dear Martin and grown to respect and admire. It went like this, literally. D, hey guys. Z, what's up? Me, favorites. D, I've been thinking, maybe, just maybe. You should make a book about us. Z, yes. D, like black kids, you know, not like Justice, because Justice had hope. He went to a good college. Me, tell me more. D, we don't go to good colleges. We don't have a perfect family like everybody else. Z, that's facts. D, honestly, we don't even know if we'll live past the age of 18. Z, this stuff me and D go through every day. D, you probably can't put it all in a book, but man, Z. And we got family and friends locked up in everything. D, I know people will listen. You're our voice. Since that conversation, I've had the privilege of meeting many boys and girls who are very much not like Justice, who aren't high achieving and headed towards blindingly bright futures, who don't nail their SATs or win debate state championships. I've met them, not at preparatory academies or Ivy League universities, but in alternative schools and juvenile detention facilities, which made me realize that while Justice's story might have come to a satisfactory conclusion, for me at least, there was someone else, a different character, whose story had not, Vernel Laquan Banks Jr. If you don't remember him from Dear Martin or haven't read it, don't worry, you will. He has a story to tell you, Nick. Sample complete, ready to continue?