A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (based on Siobhan Dowd's work), 224 pages.

This illustrated work about nightmares and childhood loss is not for the faint-of-heart. Conor's mom keeps going to hospital for her treatment. His dad is far away, and he has to spend way too much time with his cold and emotionally distant grandmother. And then there are the monsters. There is the monster in his nightmares that keeps him from his mother, and there is the monster that appears in his yard, the one that demands Conor speak the truths that he would prefer to avoid. Not a barrel of laughs, but brilliantly done. Check our catalog.