Discussion questions for 'A Monster Calls'

Discussion questions for our May 2017 book.

1.  “You’re a good boy,” Conor’s mother tells him. “I
wish you didn’t have to be quite so good” (page 17). What does she mean by that? Why does Conor have to be so good?

2.  How does the monster describe itself to Conor?
Where does the monster come from? What does
it want? Do you think that the monster is real, or
is it a product of Conor’s imagination? What does
Conor think?

3.  Lily was once Conor’s closest friend, but now he
can’t forgive her. Why? Is he right to feel betrayed?
How do most people behave around Conor once
they learn about his mother’s illness? What would
you have done in Lily’s situation?

4.  “Stories are wild creatures,” the monster says.
“When you let them loose, who knows what havoc
they might wreak?” (page 51). What does the
monster mean by this? In what ways does the rest of
novel prove the monster’s point?

5.  Discuss the role that humor plays in this novel. 
Where are the best comic moments? Describe the
monster’s sense of humor. Would you enjoy the
monster’s company?

6.  “Sometimes people need to lie to themselves most
of all,” the monster tells Conor (page 62). Is Conor
lying to himself about his mother’s illness? Is his
mother lying to herself? What does each of them
need to believe? Why?

7.  Look closely at the illustrations. How do they
capture the tone of the novel? How do they
express the range of Conor’s emotions?

8.  Who is the hero of the monster’s first tale? Who
is the villain? How does the story keep surprising
Conor? What does Conor hope to learn from the
story? What does he actually learn?

9.  Discuss Conor’s relationship with his father.
What have they shared over the years? Why does
Conor want to live with his father now? Why
does his father say no?

10.  In the monster’s second tale, whose home is
destroyed? Why? What does the story inspire
Conor to do? Why does he enjoy doing it? How
does Conor’s grandmother respond to his actions?
Why?

11.  Conor’s monster appears to him in the form of
a giant yew tree. What is the medicinal value of
the tree? How effective is it as a treatment for his
mother’s illness? Why does she want to believe it
will help?

12.  Harry, the school bully, looks straight into
Conor’s eyes and says, “I no longer see you” (page
145). Why is this such a cruel thing to say? How
does Conor make himself impossible to miss?

13.  Describe Conor’s recurring nightmare. How does
it usually end? What changes when the monster
demands the truth? What is more painful to
Conor than the death of his mother? Why does
he need to be honest?

14.  At the very end of the novel, what does Conor say
to his mother? Why must he say it? Why must
she hear it?

15.  The authors’ note explains that Patrick Ness
wrote this novel based on an idea from Siobhan
Dowd. Why was Patrick Ness initially reluctant
to take on the project? What persuaded him to
change his mind? Even though it’s impossible
to know for sure, do you believe Siobhan Dowd
would have liked the finished book? Why or why
not?

From http://www.candlewick.com/book_files/0763655597.bdg.1.pdf

May 2017: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

For May 2017, Andrea has picked "A Monster Calls: Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd" by Patrick Ness.

DID YOU KNOW?
A Monster Calls was made into a movie:
a 2016 dark fantasy drama film directed by J. A. Bayona and written by Patrick Ness, based on his novel of the same name. The film stars Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell, Lewis MacDougall, and Liam Neeson, and tells the story of Conor (MacDougal), a child whose mother (Jones) is terminally ill; one night, he is visited by a giant tree-like monster (Neeson), who states that he will come back and tell him three stories.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A #1 New York Times bestseller

An unflinching, darkly funny, and deeply moving story of a boy, his seriously ill mother, and an unexpected monstrous visitor.

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting-- he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It's ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd-- whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself-- Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As a child
I was born on an army base called Fort Belvoir, near Alexandria, Virginia, in the United States. My father was a drill sergeant in the US Army, but much nicer than that makes him seem. I only stayed at Fort Belvoir for the first four months of my life and have never even been back to the East Coast of America. We moved to Hawaii, where I lived until I was almost six. I went to kindergarten there, and we used to have field trips down to Waikiki Beach. I once picked up a living sea urchin and got about a hundred needle pricks in the palm of my hand. I made up stories all the time as a kid, though I was usually too embarrassed to show them to anybody.

As an adult
I've only ever really wanted to be a writer. I studied English Literature at the University of Southern California, and when I graduated, I got a job as a corporate writer at a cable company in Los Angeles, writing manuals and speeches and once even an advertisement for the Gilroy, California Garlic Festival. I got my first story published in Genre magazine in 1997 and was working on my first novel, The Crash of Hennington, when I moved to London in 1999. I've lived here ever since. I taught Creative Writing at Oxford University for three years, usually to students older than I was.

As an artist
So far, I've published two books for adults, a novel called The Crash of Hennington and a short story collection called Topics About Which I Know Nothing, a title which seemed funny at the time but less so 10,000 mentions later... Here's a helpful hint if you want to be a writer: When I'm working on a first draft, all I write is 1000 words a day, which isn't that much (I started out with 300, then moved up to 500, now I can do 1000 easy). And if I write my 1000 words, I'm done for the day, even if it only took an hour (it usually takes more, of course, but not always). Novels are anywhere from 60,000 words on up, so it's possible that just sixty days later you might have a whole first draft. The Knife of Never Letting Go is 112,900 words and took about seven months to get a good first draft. Lots of rewrites followed. That's the fun part, where the book really starts to come together just exactly how you see it, the part where you feel like a real writer.

Things you didn't know about Patrick Ness
1. I have a tattoo of a rhinoceros.
2. I have run two marathons.
3. I am a certified scuba diver.
4. I wrote a radio comedy about vampires.
5. I have never been to New York City but...
6. I have been to Sydney, Auckland and Tokyo.
7. I was accepted into film school but turned it down to study writing.
8. I was a goth as a teenager (well, as much of a goth as you could be in Tacoma, Washington and still have to go to church every Sunday).
9. I am no longer a goth.
10. Under no circumstances will I eat onions.

*******

Patrick Ness is the author of the Chaos Walking trilogy. The Knife of Never Letting Go, Book One of the trilogy, won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Booktrust Teenage Prize. The Ask and The Answer, the second book in the trilogy won the Costa Children's Book Award 2009. The third book, Monsters of Men, was released in September 2010.

He has also written a novel (The Crash of Hennington) and a short story collection (Topics About Which I Know Nothing) for adults, has taught Creative Writing at Oxford University, and is a literary critic for the Guardian. Born in Virginia, he lives in London.