This is another one of the books from this year that has been on everyone's must read list. I joined the band wagon.
The premise of the book is that a young boy is being haunted by a nightmare each night and when the book opens, a monster is calling him from outside his window. We know there is something wrong with his mother but it isn't named. It doesn't take long to figure out that she is dying and the boy is trying to deal with it in his own way. The monster tells him that the boy called him and not the other way around and he will only leave after he has told three tales and the boy has told the monster the truth of his nightmares. As the novel progresses, the boy's mother grows worse and so does the boy's actions and the ways he tries to cope with her sickness. And at that, I will leave off.
This is a great book to deal with the subject of sickness, death and grief. It is full of anger and denial and truth without sappiness or lessons. The illustrations are creepy to the perfect degree and the short chapters have you pushing along no matter how hard the subject matter becomes. The listing says its YA, which I would agree on the level that the content is of a mature understanding, but there isn't anything younger students in the 5-8th grade bracket couldn't read in this book.
Interest level and reading level: YA
Genre: Hard to categorize--Fairy Tale Fantasy because of the use of the monster and the tales, but also realistic in its portrayal of loss and grief.
Comparable Titles: Between Shades of Gray, Jasper Jones, Noah Barleywater Runs Away
Book Connections: folktales, grief/death, Yew Trees, Old World Medicine
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