This Young Readers adaptation of the NYT Bestseller is a must read for students passionate about social justice. It's a deep and personal look at the prison system in America, and how the system is set up against poor and marginalized young people. Bryan Stevenson shares his background as a lawyer and social justice advocate, and takes us through some of his most challenging cases of the wrongfully imprisoned, some who were on death row awaiting execution when he started his career. 

The first half of the book mainly focuses on Walter McMillian, a black man in Alabama wrongfully convicted of murder, who is awaiting the death penalty. Everything about the case was mismanaged and the lead detectives and lead witness both admitted to lying. Readers learn about Walter's case in detail, interspersed with other inmates, many also on death row, that Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative are working to make just.

Towards the latter part of the book, Stevenson focuses on the problem of American youth in marginalized communities who are not only tried as adults and forced to be jailed with adults, but are then giving life sentences. Many of them only 13 or 14 when they committed their crimes, many of them dealing with mental illness and poverty and other vulnerable circumstances.

Riveting, immersive, compassionate, and just, I recommend the Young Readers adaptation of Just Mercy for young readers ages 12 and up.