A Book A Day ... A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Okay.
It's hard for me to pick a "favorite of the year." But this has to be as close as it can get to "favorite of the year." Patrick Ness is a master telling the story of a mother dying and the process her young son is going through to learn to accept her death. It's beyond powerful. And I felt like the monster had punched through my chest and squeezed my heart into a pulp.
I loved the metaphor of the monster of our thoughts. I'm always guilty of letting my thoughts take on a life of their own. I so could relate to this boy, feeling responsible and guilty for something out of his control.
There are moments of absolute humor. There are moments that make your spine tingle. And there's the release of learning to let go.
This is a masterpiece. I couldn't stop crying for a long time when I finished it. And I still get choked up talking about it ... partly because I know Patrick Ness got the idea from a good friend and author, Siobhan Dowd, who died of cancer ... the rest because I'm just a sap. (I've been known to sob in commercials and one particularly emotional episode of Handy Manny. Hey. Don't judge me.)
Blurb:
The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.
But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...
This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.
It wants the truth.
Age: 10 and up.
It's hard for me to pick a "favorite of the year." But this has to be as close as it can get to "favorite of the year." Patrick Ness is a master telling the story of a mother dying and the process her young son is going through to learn to accept her death. It's beyond powerful. And I felt like the monster had punched through my chest and squeezed my heart into a pulp.
I loved the metaphor of the monster of our thoughts. I'm always guilty of letting my thoughts take on a life of their own. I so could relate to this boy, feeling responsible and guilty for something out of his control.
There are moments of absolute humor. There are moments that make your spine tingle. And there's the release of learning to let go.
This is a masterpiece. I couldn't stop crying for a long time when I finished it. And I still get choked up talking about it ... partly because I know Patrick Ness got the idea from a good friend and author, Siobhan Dowd, who died of cancer ... the rest because I'm just a sap. (I've been known to sob in commercials and one particularly emotional episode of Handy Manny. Hey. Don't judge me.)
Blurb:
The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.
But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...
This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.
It wants the truth.
Age: 10 and up.
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