Book review - The Monster Hypothesis

Title: The Monster Hypothesis
Author: Romily Bernard
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Spirit's Key by Edith Cohn
                      The Disappearance of Emily H by Barrie Summy
Rating:

more than meets the eye

Summary (provided by publisher):  Welcome to Bohring-home to 453 people, 2,053 alligators, and one monster curse.
Correction: home to 454 people, now that Kick Winter is living in the swamp Hollows with her Grandma Missouri, the town (fake) psychic. Bohring is anything but boring for Kick who has already blown a hole through the kitchen floor, befriended a chicken-eating gator, and discovered that the town's hundred-year curse is upon them.
It's the Bohring curse and all the kids are about to become monsters-or so the legend goes. People are worried-except for Kick. She knows there's a scientific explanation for everything, especially curses and monsters. But Kick is the new kid in school and she's determined to make a name for herself . . . by pretending to be psychic.
According to her calculations: one teeny-tiny life + (fake) psychic skills = popularity. But when kids start disappearing and glowing creatures start showing up, Kick's theory quickly evaporates in a puff of foul-smelling swamp gas. Can Kick use her (real) science smarts to prove the curse is a hoax? Or is it just-maybe-sort of-somehow possible the curse is here?
Author Romily Bernard weaves a fast-paced middle-grade mystery filled with humor and scientific intrigue, set in a perfectly eerie Southern town.

My opinion: I like the interpretation of a curse as the power of suggestion over a group of people. Our inclination towards belief influencing our perceptions and interpretation. We see that in the large scale in this book with the town curse. The people believe in it so they are inclined to attribute strange happenings as being related to the curse. Its an excuse for wild or weird behavior. Mass hysteria aided by malfeasance. We also see it in the small scale with Kick and her school relationships. She refuses to see the truth about who values and accepts here.There's an emotional complexity that belies the simplicity of the plot. While the mystery's resolution is a bit lacking in evidence, the heart of the story is strong.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Darning

I've long been interested in the idea of darning but never had a reason to try it. Until now. I have a pair of knitted socks that I love that recently developed a rather large hole.

I was pretty bummed but set it aside intending to repair it eventually. I mentioned it in passing to my mother and she found a darning egg for me to use in her stash.

Now, I'm aware that typically one darns a garment in matching yarn. But that seems boring to me. I decided to follow the Japanese philosophy of kintsugi, embracing a repair as part of the objects history and highlighting it instead of hiding it. So I darned my green sock with red-orange yarn. 

Not bad for my first attempt

I have a small stash of remnants of sock yarn now, just waiting for the next repair.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 1

It's already Christmas Eve, friends! So I have just one last craft to share with you. It's a simple one, made from felt, glitter, and embroidery floss, but it's the symbols I've been focused on all month. 

May you have a blessed Christmas.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 2

I've made a lot of puppets in recent years but my experience with marionettes is limited. I really wanted to try my hand at it this year and I settled on Scrooge as my subject. I fashioned a head and hands from some air dry clay.

If you look closely, though, you can see that as it dried, the head cracked. So I had to make a second attempt with a ping pong ball and hot glue. Given it's haphazard nature, I neglected to get any photos of the puppet in process. I formed the body from a chunk of foam, the clothes from scrap fabric.

The result is a bit rough but I think that suits Scrooge's character.
 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 3

I learned, recently, about the tradition of the yule goat. As a huge fan of goats, I was instantly intrigued. Once I saw a picture I knew I wanted to try making one of my own.

Of course, yule goats are made of straw which I do not have. What I do have in abundance is packing paper so I thought I'd try making one of shredded paper with a paper straw framework.

The assembly was a bit haphazard, so I don't have any process shots but I do have one of the finished goat. It's a bit rough but I'm happy enough with the result that I'll probably try it again in future.

 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 4

I have a thing about craft kits that have you make several identical items. I understand they're supposed to be used by a group but that bugs me even more. I hate the idea of a whole group of kids walking out of an event with identical projects. So when I get a kit of that sort I do my best to personalize each item. I loved these sloths and tried to use the pieces of foam in unique ways so each sloth is a little different.

 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 5

Some crafts are big and involved. And some are little and dumb. And I love them anyway. There's just something about giving an unexpected figure a hat or reindeer antlers that makes me very happy. And that's what I've done here. I dressed a bird skeleton for winter and tasked a dinosaur with pulling Santa's sleigh. They'll be joining my narwhal, voodoo doll, and fruitcake (part of previous countdowns).

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 6

It's become one of my traditions to add to my Christmas farm every year. I decided to go low key this year, adding just pipe cleaner wreaths to the fence.

 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 7

I found this snow globe kit at the dollar store a while back and picked it up on a whim. I've been trying to come up with a design ever since. Sorting through my random craft supplies, I settled on craft foam, a glitter tree branch, and a plastic figure from Hotel Transylvania. The result is equal parts weird and cute. So, right up my alley.

 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 8

I have mixed feelings about nutcrackers. They can be very cool looking but also tend to be vaguely creepy. I dislike the mouth on this one. Its fur was also a bit crooked and dingy. Since I was making changes anyway, I decided to give it a complete overhaul.

It's much friendlier as Mickey Mouse.

 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 9

After the fun I had making a fruitcake puppet last year, I knew I wanted to make another food puppet. My sister suggested a cup of cocoa. I decided to render it as a pop-up puppet, the cup serving as a container and the marshmallow acting as the actual puppet.

I made the cup from a little plastic flower pot with a pipe cleaner for a handle.

For the marshmallow, I found a chunk of foam that had been a stabilizer in a tube.

 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 10

I found this decoration in after Christmas sales last year. It was kind of fun but I could see a lot of potential for it to be amazing.

I repainted it with narwhals. I look forward to swapping it, seeing what fun combinations I can make.

 
 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 11

Sometimes you find a decoration with a good shape but which is a bit lacking in the actual image. That was the case with this plaque.

 A little acrylic paint made it a lot cooler.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 12

I like to make my own cards for a few of my co-workers. I try to come up with something cute and clever. This year's cards are a little more stylized but all center on the same concept. "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light"

 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 13

It has become one of my traditions to do a holiday themed LEGO display, usually featuring Doctor Who elements. For the first time this year, I based my display on a particular episode. My favorite Christmas episode: The Christmas Invasion. 

In LEGO I've got Rose and Mickey carrying an unconscious Doctor to the TARDIS 

And citizens at the edge of a roof, perched to jump off at the command of the Sycorax.
 

 There's even a killer Christmas tree on the left edge there.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 14

I had planned to use this little piece of scrap denim for an embroidered picture but I was struggling to come up with an image to stitch.

When I did finally come up with an idea, I decided it was better suited to paint than sewing. Luckily denim holds acrylic paint quite well.
 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 15

A couple of years ago I turned a tin into a robotic Santa from the Christmas Invasion. I had another tin in my craft supplies just asking to be something Doctor Who themed as well.

 I decided on the Host from the Christmas episode Voyage of the Damned.

 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 16

I like to make a sock puppet every Christmas season. This year I decided on a mouse. While a mouse isn't especially seasonal, I upped the Christmas feel by making this puppet out of parts of two Christmas socks, the toe of the green striped on and the top of the other.

I made his whiskers from artificial pine needles.

 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 17

I get usually get one of these ornament kits every year. This particular set was already pretty cute. A little acrylic paint just adds to the appeal.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 18

There is a built-in wardrobe in my room that has been sadly undecorated the whole time I've lived here. This year I decided to rectify that. It needed to be just the right garland to fit the nerdy atmosphere of my decor. I settled on Pokemon characters, their images featuring Christmas elements. A few pompoms add to the festive feel.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 19

I was planning to change the decorations on our wreath this year. Then I found small wreath forms at the dollar store and the plan changed. I figured I'd wrap the form in some garland and maybe add some Doctor Who themed decoration. Again, though, I found some new craft supplies that changed the plan. Namely, I found some black tube ribbon which gives the wreath a decidedly outer-space feel. Some star garland and a craft foam TARDIS complete the look.

 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 20

When I received the Conductor Mickey Funko Pop as a gift earlier this year, I immediately knew it would feature in my Christmas displays this year. I made instruments and earmuffs for a variety of figures, turning them into a band for Mickey.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 21

I've become a fan of peg dolls as a craft. While my usual subjects lately have been real people, Christmas is the perfect time to delve into the fanciful. And peg dolls are a great shape for the Grinch and Max.

 

Crafty Christmas countdown: 22

Two years ago I made this pseudo-snow globe out of a jar and a Tsum-Tsum. Eventually, I decided I wanted Spider-man back leaving the jar fairly empty. It's been waiting for a new figure ever since. This year I found a little pony to glue into it. With her hooves up in the air like that, she was perfectly posed to hold a bead ornament.