The Guardian Nosy Crow book group kicked off last week with a lively discussion of RJ Palacio's Wonder – at the physical book group in the Crow's nest, on the blog and on Twitter (#NCGkids). Nosy Crow's Kate Watson has written an excellent summary of the debate, which covered the book's sentimentality, structural flaws and much more.
The book club is back again next month with another great book. This time it's A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness – the only book to have won both the Carnegie and the Greenaway medals. Inspired by an idea by the late Siobhan Dowd, it is a dark, moving and painfully funny tale of a young boy coming to terms with loss.
It's a book that's ripe for discussion, being unusual in so many ways. We might think about what kind of book is it – fantasy? The book was created from a set of notes left behind by Siobhan Dowd but is it really, as Frank Cottrell Boyce suggests in his review, "easy to trace Dowd's influence"? It's a beautiful book (please, please buy the illustrated version) so we'll probably consider how the illustrations interact with the text and how necessary they are. The emotional journeys of the characters will be up for debate, alongside the relationship between Conor and the Monster. And, following last week's start, we'll undoubtedly be asking for a show of hands to reveal who blubbed (early confession – it completely floored me).
What are you waiting for?
- Read the first chapter
- Listen to a podcast with Patrick Ness reading from and talking about A Monster Calls
- Learn more about how Patrick and illustrator Jim Kay worked together
- See a gallery of Jim Kay's illustrations
- Buy A Monster Calls at the Guardian bookshop
I'll be at the Crow's Nest in London on Thursday 11 July from 6.30pm, reporting back live on the face-to-face discussion in the comments thread below and feeding in your comments online to the group there. You can also get involved on Twitter, using #NCGkids – tweeted comments will be fed back into the discussion here and at the Crow's Nest.
If you have any other questions or talking points about A Monster Calls, please add them in the comments below for everyone to consider on the night. And there's no need to wait for 11 July – you can post your comments and get the discussion going straight away. But do come back to follow the discussion and contribute live on the night if you can, too. Happy reading!
