A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and inspired by the late Siobhan Dowd is a moving novel that will take you on a boy’s emotional journey. It is on the Texas Lone Star Reading List 2012-13. Thirteen-year-old Conor keeps having the same nightmare. At 12:07 a.m. he awakens to see a monster calling to him outside his window. The monster is none other than the great yew tree in his backyard that his mother frequently commented on. Although the monster is large, frightening, and forceful; Conor isn’t afraid. His mother is battling cancer. His father has started a new life in America with a new wife and baby. To make matters worse his grandmother is making him stay at her house while his mother undergoes another ravaging cancer treatment. Conor feels as though others do not see him and feel sorry for him because of his mother’s illness. He just wants to be like the other kids. The monster says that he will continue to visit Conor until he has shared three stories with him and that Conor will tell him the fourth story. The stories are disturbing and unlike any that Conor has heard before. What is Conor’s story? Life is tough and I cannot imagine a tougher situation than the one Conor is experiencing. You need a box of Kleenex to read this one. All I can say is when I was finished…I was speechless.