The Ask and the Answer Award-winning by Patrick Ness (author) (UK edition)

“We were in the square, in the square where I’d run, holding her, carrying her, telling her to stay alive, stay alive till we got safe, till we got to Haven so I could save her. But there weren’t no safety, no safety at all, there was just him and his men.”

Fleeing before a relentless army, Todd has carried a desperately wounded Viola right into the hands of their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss. Torn from Viola and imprisoned, Todd is forced to learn the ways of the Mayor’s new order. But what secrets are hidden just outside town? Where is Viola? Is she even still alive? And who are the mysterious Answer? Todd has no answers of his own – until one day, the bombs begin to explode… This heart-stopping sequel to the prize-winning The Knife of Never Letting Go is a tense, shocking and deeply moving tale of resistance against the most extreme odds.

Product Details

Format

Paperback

ISBN

9781406322477

Lexile measure

770L

Accelerated Reader

AR book level: 4.6; Upper years; 16.0 points

Other details

536 pages

Condition

New

UK edition

Author/Illustrator

Patrick Ness

Bestselling and award-winning novelist Patrick Ness was born in Virginia, USA, and spent his upbringing in the states of Hawaii, Washington and California. He has lived in London since 1999. He is the author of a novel and short story collection for adults, but is best known for the Chaos Walking trilogy: The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men. The trilogy has won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Costa Children’s Book of the Year Prize, and the Booktrust Teenage Prize. In 2011 Monsters of Men won the prestigious Carnegie Medal after all three books in the trilogy were shortlisted, the first time that has ever happened.

A Monster Calls is Patrick’s sixth book, created from the final idea of 2009 Carnegie Medal winner Siobhan Dowd, whose early death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself. In 2012 it became the first book ever to win both the Carnegie Medal and Kate Greenaway Award in the same year.

Reviews

John, Scholastic Staff
on 24 February 2011

Totally brilliant

I absolutely love this trilogy - totally ground-breaking. If, like me, you think that pretty much every story has been told, then try this. The story of a planet where your thoughts are continuously broadcast twists and turns in such surprising directions that edge-of-your seat, game-changing cliffhangers almost become the norm. It's bleak and heart-breaking at times too, so prepare yourself for an emotional journey. So totally brilliant that I want everyone to read it! (And one more thing: could this be the most unfilmable story ever? Read it and you'll see what I mean!)