The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming... This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth. In a unique pairing of Carnegie Medal winners, Patrick Ness spins an extraordinarily moving tale of love, loss and hope from the final idea of Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself. This moving novel is brought to life with extraordinary award-winning illustrations from Jim Kay, which add an extra dimension to the story. What are the key themes? The key themes running through the book are family, death, truth, suffering, isolation and coming to terms with loss. Book Review 'Pearson's New Windmills collection brings together an incredible range of titles that teachers can trust, ideal for KS3, GCSE and beyond. From October 2014, Patrick Ness' extraordinarily powerful novel about a teenager struggling to deal with his mother's terminal illness will be added to the list; along with teacher support materials underpinned by the University of Exeter's Grammar for Writing pedagogy, and back of book comprehension activities. Based on an original idea by the author Siobhan Dowd, who died before she could write the story, A Monster Calls is bleakly beautiful, unflinchingly honest and utterly compelling. A tumbling, ragged storm of intense, chaotic emotions is masterfully contained within Ness' unflinching prose, and Jim Kay's illustration are hauntingly atmospheric. Short chapters and contemporary language help to ensure the text is accessible as possible, despite touching on themes with the potential to stretch the creative and critical thinking skills of your most able students.' www.teachsecondary.com