Author: Sandra L Rostirolla
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Lolo's Light by Liz Garton Scanlon
Rain Rising by Courtne Comrie
Rating:
.JPG)
Summary (provided by publisher): Why does everything have to be so complicated? Why? Monsters! That’s why! They stick their scungy little noses into everything.
Twelve-year-old Sam learns this lesson the hard way. His fact-finding mission about Monsters starts off with the best of intensions. He just wants to help his older brother, Ben. After a terrible accident awakens his own Monster, Sam’s behaviour starts causing problems with everyone, including the girl he loves. He discovers the family secret that caused Ben’s downward spiral and realizes that someone else also has a Monster. And the hideous beast did something really bad.
If Sam is to get through this mess, he needs to find a way to make friends with his Monster before the ravenous beast turns around and swallows him whole.
My opinion: Most middle grade fiction does not approach such big ideas with such such straightforward, brutal honesty. There is no delicate dancing around the desperation and depression involved here, the high stress levels and destruction of relationships and the situation devolves and the drought continues. This family gets hit with one bad thing after another and can see no way out of the increasingly deep hole. It's a brutally honest book which means it is likely to be too much for some young readers. It's a book I would want to discuss with a kid after they read it to make sure they were able to deal with the realities it discusses.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
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