A Monster Calls

On Monday I posted the following comment to Patrick Ness's "Visitors" page (www.patrickness.com).

Dear Mr. Ness,

Thank you for diving into your spiritual guts to write "A Monster Calls." Last weekend I was in my favorite local bookstore (Green Bean Books) here in Portland, Oregon, to pick up a book I'd ordered. I saw "A Monster Calls" sitting out on the "Recommended" shelf and was immediately drawn to it. First, I trust the store owner's picks, but second, I was struck by the beautiful similarity in tone and illustration to Clyde Robert Bulla's "The Ghost of Windy Hill." Have you read -- and were you and Jim Kay inspired by -- this children's book? The illustrations by Don Bolognese are shadowy doppelgangers to the work you've both lovingly done here, and as I read your book this weekend I was transported back to a time and place in childhood that is hard to capture.

I teared up at the end of the book, and started telling my boyfriend how touched I was by the work you and Mr. Kay have done. Because of my relationship with my own mother -- who introduced "The Ghost of Windy Hill" to me -- and because I'm a writer too, I felt a pure kinship with this novel. After finishing it, I felt cracked open with faith and truth and melancholic longing and the strength of spirit and the purity of letting go when it's most important.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being brave, and for honoring Siobhan Dowd. You have a modern day classic on your hands, and I'm appreciative of the opportunity to now call myself a fan.

Warmly,
Nathan Buck