A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Summary:

At 12:07 AM Connor, a thirteen-year-old Irish boy, wakes up to see a giant, tree-like monster standing outside his window. It’s not the monster Connor’s when expecting. It’s not the monster from Connor’s nightmares.

Connor’s mother has breast cancer. That’s something Connor has really been struggling with. He may have to live with his grandmother, and his doesn’t like her. Connor’s father doesn’t want Connor to come to America to live with him; he has a new family now. But that’s not the horrible secret that Connor struggles to live with, the secret that gives him nightmares, the secret that brought the monster to Connor’s window and into Connor’s life.

Review:

This is a young adult/middle grade novel that has been on my radar ever since it came out five years ago. For one reason or another, I never picked it up, even after I purchased it in February 2013. This is yet another novel that is being adapted into a film which comes out in January of next year. The movie and this class gave me the push I needed to finally read this. I’m very much a mood reader, and this novel is not my usual fare. Plus, everyone kept talking about how sad this novel was, and I have not a particular fan of sad books. While books that make the reader sad often contain important and necessary subject matter, sadness is just not an emotion that most people, myself included, tend to seek out. After reading this, for me personally, this novel was not as sad as I expected it to me. The reader learns right from the outset that Connor’s mother is dying from breast cancer, so that information provided me with all the mental preparation I needed. The novel was well done, and it included illustrations which would work well for adolescent readers.

The twist on what the monster actually is (it’s not the cancer, like I was expecting) was really well done. I also think it was a very apt metaphor for what many children of cancer patients must go through. Personally, I grew up with a mother battling Crohn’s disease and also had a grandfather diagnosed with Stage 5 leukemia when I was 19-years-old, who died two months after his initial diagnosis. So, while I haven’t gone through anything quite as life-altering and traumatic as what Connor is battling, I’m also no stranger to having to watch my loved ones suffer with illness. I would definitely teach this novel. I think it’s perfect for the eight and/or ninth grade class. While it wasn’t quite my cup of tea, I could definitely appreciate it for being a well-done example of what it was meant to be.

Ness, Patrick, Jim Kay, and Siobhan Dowd. A Monster Calls: A Novel. Somerville, MA: Candlewick, 2011. Print.