Cops violently arrest Daddy for dealing drugs while Quan is staying with Daddy one weekend. Two years later, Quan’s life changes forever. Quan ran away because he couldn’t stand to see Mama’s abusive boyfriend, Dwight, beat Mama again. Quan and Justyce meet when they are 9 and 10, after they both run away from home to the rocket ship structure at the new neighborhood playground. Part One of the book also includes letters that Quan writes to his friend Justyce, a Black boy who grew up in the same impoverished neighborhood but now attends Yale as a prelaw student. Part One of Dear Justyce is comprised of flashbacks that chart how Quan, the African American protagonist, ended up where he is in the novel’s present: incarcerated for shooting and killing a white cop, Officer Castillo-a crime, readers later find out, that Quan didn’t actually commit. Snapshot: Two Young Men on a New (To Them) Playground.Snapshot: Two Boys, an Attorney, a Teacher, and a Disgruntled Guard in a Conference Room.Snapshot: A Black Boy (and a White Boy) Visits a Black Man (and a White Boy).Snapshot: A Prelaw Yale Undergrad, a Defense Lawyer, and a District Attorney in a Law Office.Snapshot: Two Boys, a Girl, a Teacher, a Lawyer, and a Case Management Intern in a Basement.Snapshot: Two Boys and a Girl in a Car (Present Day).

April 24 Snapshot: A Postscript (Present Day).

Snapshot: A Boy Alone on a Run-Down Playground (2017).

Snapshot: Two Boys on a Brand-New Playground (2010).

Dear justyce