When the Monster Knocks is a children's literature book. Age of study: 7-99 years old.
Author: Patrick Nice, Painting: Jim Kay (English). Translator: Wang Zuning
The book won both the 2012 Carnegie Prize for Literature and the Kate Greenaway Prize. As a children's literature, it is the first book to receive this award so far.
I had the pleasure of reading the first edition of the translation in September 2021.
"When the Monster Knocks" is about the 13-year-old protagonist Connor's mother who has cancer and is in the late stages. While his parents divorced a few years ago, Connor and his mother depended on each other, and his father remarried and had a new family. His mother's illness was unbearable for the 13-year-old, and he did not want his mother to leave him, but he knew from all indications that it could not be saved. His father and new wife had children, and he had no intention of taking him over to live with him, knowing that he would have to live with his grandmother after his mother's death. And Connor and Grandma "couldn't get along by nature"! All these facts weighed heavily on Connor's heart, making him unable to bear it, and having nowhere to tell, and he also suffered from school bullying, so he "called" out monsters to listen to himself and save himself.
The monster knows all Connor's secrets and tries to save them, and he tells Connor four stories.
The first story: the throne is inherited by the murderer, the farmer's daughter dies innocently, and the witch deserves to be rescued. Connor could not accept such an outcome. But the monster said, "There's not always going to be a good guy, and it's not always going to be a bad guy." Most people are between two."
The second story: The greedy medicine doctor holds a grudge because the decent priest did not agree to cut down a wisteria tree to satisfy his dream of becoming rich, and when the priest's two daughters fell seriously ill, they were not saved, and the two daughters finally died. But the monster punished decent priests instead of greedy medicine doctors.
Connor could not accept this ending. The monster said: "The pastor lives by faith and faith, but abandons it when he encounters difficulties, and this is the time when he needs faith the most, he treats faith selfishly and cowardly, and pays for it with the lives of his daughters." Connor was angry, smashing, destroying, and venting with the monster in his dream. After waking up, he found that he had destroyed the living room of his grandmother's house with various high-end furniture and high-end ornaments into ruins. Grandma was heartbroken, but did not punish him.
The third story: the pain of being ignored. Connor doesn't want to be treated specially by the school teachers, doesn't want to be pathetic, and doesn't want to be ignored, and the monster knows his secrets and reveals them. Connor, supported by the monster, resists violently, and he injures his bullying classmate and is hospitalized. This time, Connor was treated specially, with no expected punishment. The monster is right, being ignored is not the worst thing to do.
The fourth story: Speak the truth. Connor dreamed countless times of real monsters snatching his mother from his hands. The monster forced him to tell his true words, and Connor painfully admitted that he couldn't stand it anymore, that his mother would eventually leave, and that he only hoped that everything would end quickly, and that it was he who let go of his mother in his dream. Connor, who spoke the truth, was relieved and gladly accepted all this. Connor knew he was going to get through it, and it was terrible, too terrible to imagine. But he wants to live.
It took me a morning to read the book in tears. For the wonderful touching story, the simplicity and vividness of the text, the exquisite illustration in place, but also the deep meaning of the book to explain life and death, loss, redemption deeply moved, each of us will encounter the life and death of the loved one, will face the loss, will be entangled, will be painful, how to face these, read the book may be reconciled with the self who was once in pain, but also for the future encounter similar situation has a good psychological construction.
Ten days ago, an accident caused me to lose a good friend, only 35 years old......... Unwilling to accept such a fact, then you who love life, are full of vitality, love to talk and laugh, have never said goodbye to us. Annoyed that he usually neglected contact, regretted not greeting more and caring more about his lovely friends, those days he was surrounded by huge sadness and sadness, and his heart ached. What else can you do but face it? I hope his parents, lover and two children will endure the blow and survive well.
Here to thank the "full of small books" gift book (WeChat public account, like full of mother's children's book recommendation, follow for many years, benefit a lot).