A MONSTER CALLS

A MONSTER CALLS-Patrick Ness

“Stories are the wildest things of all. Stories chase and bite and hunt.” 

Book information

English title: A monster calls.

Spanish title: Un monstruo viene a verme.

 Author: Patrick Ness

Nº Pages: 204/213

Editorial: Nube de tinta /Walker Books

Approx. price: 14.95€/ 9.99£

ISBN:  978-84-15594-19-2/978-1-4063-3934-5

Set in: United States,Nowadays

Connor opens his eyes.

Darkness to be seen.

Hard ground and sand to be felt.

A monster to be terrified of.

The same feeling, the same fear, the same nightmare he’s been having long before his mother even started her treatments.

 He wakes up in his bed -00.07 on the digital clock- heavy-breathing and covered in sweat just to find out something is outside the bedroom window: a monster. But it isn´t the monster he was expecting to find, it´s not the monster of his nightmare. The monster standing in the backyard has branches gathered into a great and terrible face, shimmering into a mouth and nose and even eyes, watching him. The rest of the body is more and more branches twisted around others mixed with needle-like leaves and pointy ends. Connor isn´t afraid of this monster, but he would be as he wants the most dangerous thing from him. He wants the truth.

Personal Opinion:

I know this can´t be said to be a review as it doesn´t give you enough information to figure out what the plot of the book is but in my defense I have to say that´s better if you don´t know more than that information. Personally, when I ordered my copy of “A monster calls” the only thing I knew about it was the information the back cover offered – which is way less than the one I offer you in this review- and that was enough to convince me to buy it.

I strongly think the less you know about it, the more you’ll enjoy it and get surprised about this boy and all the things he has to deal with. In one single book, Patrick has created an unusual dramatic, fantasy story which involves loss, hope, a wise voice and monsters-the ones that live under our beds and the ones that live within us.

 

Other facts about the book:

-“A monster calls” will be adapted to the big screen by Focus Features. It´s a collaboration between Spain and USA as the director is J.A.Bayona and the screenplay is being written by Patrick Ness. The confirmed actor and actresses are Lewis MacDougall ,Liam Neeson, Sigourney Weaver  and Felicity Jones. The release date is expected to be October 14^th of 2016.

-The original idea of “A monster calls” by the writer Siobhan Dowd was turned into a novel by Patrick Ness – who dedicated her the novel- as she died from cancer at the age of 47. She wrote four books, two of them were published after her death. In 2009 she became the first author ever posthumously awarded the Carnegie Medal.

 -The book has lots of different covers and editions but this one´s my favorite:

This edition of Walker Book (the info is above) (www.walker.co.uk)  has drawings by Jim Kay-who won the Kate Greenaway Medal for them- that are just so well done and beautiful that I couldn´t resist to talk about them.(This and the Spanish copies are the ones I own).

More editions of the book:

 

Celia  M.G

WHAT YOUR FAVORITE BRANDS HIDE FROM YOU

Most popular clothing brands use hazardous chemicals in their items’ production. This is a problem for people living near the factories, for the customers who buy them and for the rest of the world, because the pollution created by these brands affects the entire world.

For example, most outdoors clothing brands do use PFCs and PFOA – a long-chain PFC that is linked to a number of health effects, including cancer – like The North Face and Mammut. Paradoxically, these brands don’t care about the environment when they depend on it. In China, 70% of water is polluted because the filtering systems aren’t useful for some chemicals.

Since 2011 the Detox campaign has challenged some of the world's most popular clothing brands to eliminate all releases of hazardous chemicals. Thanks to the action of over half a million designers, bloggers, fashion fans and activists twenty global fashion leaders, from Adidas to Zara, have made a commitment to Detox their clothes. Some examples of this global movement have been:

• In November 2012, Zara, announced a commitment to go toxic-free after the intense public pressure.

• In February 2014, Primark became the 20th global clothing company to commit to Detox.

• In June 2014, Adidas took a big step. It announced its objective was to become toxic-free by 2020 and to give the public their Right-to-Know, being transparent by 2020.

However, many of these brands have also another secret: The most basic human rights are being violated. The conditions of the workers diminish to the slavery. The adults are exploited and the children are recruited in the most vulnerable regions, promising to his parents a worthy salary, food, and access to the education.

An activist said: “100 % of Zara's production in Asia is a child labour… To buy a child in Pakistan is very cheap and as soon as you have done it, you can do with him what you want.” Save The Children denounces that there are officially 218 million children between 5 and 17 years slaves, but the number can spread to 400 million.

Some guilty brands are Inditex (Zara, Bershka, Massimo Dutti), H&M, The cut Englishman, Gap, Levi's, Benetton, Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Converses, I pinch, Triumph, Primark and different many, which have been denounced openly by ONG's.

These brands’ productions are in countries like Bangladesh, Morocco, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, India, Argentina, Honduras, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Mexico and other countries where it is easier to have big productions to very low costs.

So, as in the case of hazardous chemicals, the public can also change this situation by putting under pressure these brands. What would happen if consumers began to choose the articles according to the respect towards the environment and to the workers in every link of the productive chain?

Here there are some links to see how these problems affect the world:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR8c01NoNBw&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anZYk96-hEE

And here you can find some ways of helping the planet choosing your clothes in a better way:

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/detox/what-you-can-do/Detox-your-wardrobe/

AMUSINGLY WEIRD BORDERS Pt. 3 (finale)

Weird borders aren’t just caused by enclaves and exclaves. There are cases where claimed land (or even unclaimed) can lead to bizarre situations.

There are in total 2 separate pieces of land not claimed by (almost) anyone – not counting Antarctica. One of those two is Bi’r Tawil, between Egypt and Sudan.

The Administrative Boundary

differs from the "parallel" boundary

It all started (like almost every war in Africa) because of British land divisions. The Egyptian protectorate had their border in a globe’s parallel, but as there were Sudanese people in that area, they decided to stablish a different division for administrative purposes. As you may have guessed, both countries claim as the legit border the one that gives them more land (as shown in the images). But with all these messes and wars, a curious situation has taken place: the Bi’r Tawil land is officially unclaimed. But only officially. In June 16^th 2014, the American Jeremiah Heaton went on an expedition to claim the land, and he stablished there the “Kingdom of North Sudan”, proclaiming himself King and so fulfilling the dream of his 6-year-old daughter: “being a princess”.

 

Other unclaimed chunk of earth is the self-proclaimed city-state of Liberland, between Serbia and Croatia. Why is that land unclaimed, you ask? Well, if we head back to the Yugoslavian war, when Croatia and Serbia signed peace, they agreed to stablish their border on the Danube river. What’s the problem there, then? Well, the Danube has changed… A LOT. And, whilst that change has led to land being claimed by both countries, there is also land that neither of them claim. So, a Czech politician founded there a free country, called Liberland: a liberal-based city-state in which R&D and environment will be the cores of their society. A constitution is being redacted; their motto is “to live and to let live”, and you can apply for citizenship whenever you want! They only reject people with criminal or extremist (nazi, communist, etc.) record.

 

 

 
 
To finish this frenetic series, I want to honour mention our – as Spanish - most curious enclave: Llívia. It is a little city (over 14.000 habs.) inside the French Roussillon. And yet again, why in the world is that there? In 1659, after loosing – part of – the 30-years War, Spain ceded that region, the Roussillon, to France. But Llívia had the status of “villa”, granted before by Carlos I. That allowed Spain to retain control on the city.

If you enjoyed the series, go check this video and its creator’s channel out – this idea was born on them! https://youtu.be/3ZdkqqjosCM

Liberland official webpage: https://liberland.org/en/main/