A Monster Calls: Special Collectors' Edition (Movie Tie-in): Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd

by Patrick Ness, Jim Kay (Illustrator)

Overview

A deluxe hardcover edition of Patrick Ness’s masterpiece features the entire illustrated novel as well as more than one hundred pages of extraordinary film-inspired content.

To celebrate the release of Patrick Ness’s acclaimed novel as a feature film, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, this gorgeous special edition of A Monster Calls includes Jim Kay’s original illustrations as well as a comprehensive bonus section featuring:
* enlightening new essays by the author (who also wrote the screenplay)
* interviews with the director, cast, and crew
* stills from the movie
* exclusive behind-the-scenes content
* previously unpublished early sketches by the illustrator, whose artwork inspires animated scenes in the film.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763692384
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	223,361
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Patrick Ness is the author of A Monster Calls and More Than This, both of which were awarded the Carnegie Medal, as well as the critically acclaimed and best-selling Chaos Walking trilogy. Among the numerous awards he has received are the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Booktrust Teenage Prize, and the Costa Children’s Book Award. Born in Virginia, he lives in London.

Siobhan Dowd spent twenty years as a human rights campaigner before her first novel, A Swift Pure Cry, was published in 2006. She won the Carnegie Medal posthumously in 2009 after her death from breast cancer, in 2007.

Jim Kay is the illustrator of Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls as well as The Great War: Stories Inspired by Items from the First World War, an anthology of short stories. Jim Kay studied illustration and worked in the archives of the Tate Gallery and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, two experiences that have influenced his work. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Editorial Reviews

Profoundly moving, expertly crafted tale… a singular masterpiece, exceptionally well-served by Kay's atmospheric and ominous illustrations… tackles the toughest of subjects by refusing to flinch, meeting the ugly truth about life head-on with compassion, bravery, and insight.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

There’s no denying it: this is one profoundly sad story. But it’s also wise, darkly funny and brave, told in spare sentences, punctuated with fantastic images and stirring silences. Past his sorrow, fright and rage, Conor ultimately lands in a place — an imperfect one, of course — where healing can begin. A MONSTER CALLS is a gift from a generous story­teller and a potent piece of art.
—The New York Times

A nuanced tale that draws on elements of classic horror stories to delve into the terrifying terrain of loss. . . . Ness brilliantly captures Conor’s horrifying emotional ride as his mother’s inevitable death approaches. In an ideal pairing of text and illustration, the novel is liberally laced with Kay’s evocatively textured pen-and-ink artwork, which surrounds the text, softly caressing it in quiet moments and in others rushing toward the viewer with a nightmarish intensity.A poignant tribute to the life and talent of Siobhan Dowd and an astonishing exploration of fear.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A brilliantly executed, powerful tale.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

Ness twists out a resolution that is revelatory in its obviousness, beautiful in its execution, and fearless in its honesty. Kays artwork keeps the pace, gnawing at the edges of the pages with thundercloud shadows and keeping the monster just barely, terribly seeable.
—Booklist (starred review)

A masterpiece about life and loss that will stay with the reader long after the final page is turned.
—Library Media Connection (starred review)

The heavily textured monochromatic illustrations are silent screams, rendering Conor's inner chaos palpable with dense shading and jagged edges symbolizing the wildness within while shifting perspectives alternately create intimacy and distance, like the push and pull he feels as he tries to stay engaged in an impossibly painful situation… Emotionally wrenching, this draws truth across pain in a way that is accessible to middle-school readers.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Heart-wrenching and thought-provoking.
—The Horn Book

Patrick Ness is an insanely beautiful writer.
—TIME Magazine

The power of this beautiful and achingly sad story for readers over the age of 12 derives not only from Mr. Ness's capacity to write heart-stopping prose but also from Jim Kay's stunning black-ink illustrations. There are images in these pages so wild and ragged that they feel dragged by their roots from the deepest realms of myth.
—Wall Street Journal

The monster is a brilliant creation — part giant, part yew tree, destructive, didactic, elemental...The book has the thrills and ambition you would expect from the author of the Chaos Walking trilogy...Ness, Dowd, Kay and Walker have rifled death's pockets and pulled out a treasure.
—The Guardian

Featured/recommended on Oprah's 2012 Kids Reading List
—Oprah.com

An honest, heart-wrenching story that moved me to tears.
—John Boyne (author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas)

From the Publisher

In his introduction to this profoundly moving, expertly crafted tale of unaccountable loss, Ness explains how he developed the story from a set of notes left by Siobhan Dowd, who died in 2007 before she had completed a first draft. "I felt—and feel—as if I've been handed a baton, like a particularly fine writer has given me her story and said, ‘Go. Run with it. Make trouble.'" What Ness has produced is a singular masterpiece, exceptionally well-served by Kay's atmospheric and ominous illustrations. Conor O'Malley is 13. His mother is being treated for cancer; his father, Liam, has remarried and lives in America; and Conor is left in the care of a grandmother who cares more for her antique wall clock than her grandson. This grim existence is compounded by bullies at school who make fun of his mother's baldness, and an actual nightmare that wakes Conor, screaming, on a recurring basis. Then comes the monster—part human, part arboreal—a hulking yew tree that walks to his window just after midnight and tells three inscrutable parables, each of which disappoints Conor because the good guy is continually wronged. "Many things that are true feel like a cheat," the monster explains. In return for the monster's stories, Conor must tell his own, and the monster demands it be true, forcing Conor, a good boy, a dutiful son, to face up to his feelings: rage and, worse still, fear. If one point of writing is to leave something that transcends human existence, Ness has pulled a fast one on the Grim Reaper, finishing the story death kept Dowd from giving us. It is a story that not only does honor to her memory, it tackles the toughest of subjects by refusing to flinch, meeting the ugly truth about life head-on with compassion, bravery, and insight. Ages 12–up. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Gr 7 Up—Conor O'Malley, 13, is having a difficult time. At school, he copes with bullying and loneliness. His father is living in America with his new family, and at home he has to contend with a recurring nightmare that torments him every night. His mother is seriously ill and undergoing painful cancer treatments. One night, he wakes up to a voice calling his name. An ancient, treelike monster, hovering over him like a sleeping giant, has come to tell him three stories. When the monster is done, he wishes for Conor to tell him a fourth tale, wanting the scariest thing of all-the truth. The wise monster's ambiguous tales contain unexpected outcomes and help demonstrate that not all stories have happy endings, but they can be more important than anything else if they carry the truth. Conor has to accept the truth about his mother's prognosis and letting go, even if it means losing her. Only then can he start to heal, without destroying himself in the process. This is an extraordinarily moving story inspired by an idea from author Siobhan Dowd before she passed away. Kay's shadowy illustrations slither along the borders of the pages and intermingle with text to help set its dark, mysterious mood, while Conor is often seen as a silhouette. A brilliantly executed, powerful tale.—Krista Welz, North Bergen Public Library, NJ

School Library Journal