A Monster Like Me

Sophie thinks she's a monster. She thinks a lot of people around her are monsters too, and she carries her Big Book of Monsters around almost everywhere she goes so that she can identify them and protect herself and her mom from them. The big birthmark - a hermangioma - that covers one side of her face makes kids and even adults stare and even make fun of her, and as a result she has severe social anxiety. Her world of monsters helps everything make sense. Until things start to change, and the bullying gets worse, and her monsters might just make her lose the only friend she's ever had.This was a fantastic book! Sophie is 11 years old, and the writing will appeal to kids that age and even a little older. The idea of Sophie so fully believing in the idea of people being monsters, will be a little more hard to go along with, but the book has a cast of loving, supportive adults that - while not hogging the page time - make it clear that Sophie's way of dealing with the issues caused by her birthmark is not the healthiest way. Autumn, a sweetheart of a girl at Sophie's new school, is such a vivacious, loving friend to Sophie that she unwittingly opens an entire new world to her shy friend. Autumn's grandmother, a gardener and herbalist, is another new friend that slowly draws Sophie out of her shell with gentleness and acceptance. I really liked that Sophie's mom was such a positive character. Even though she was far from perfect, she loved Sophie with all her heart and really, truly wanted the absolute best for her. In so many MG and YA books the parents are negative influences and I was happy to see a strong mother/daughter relationship.4/5 stars. Strongly recommend for any kid and any library! Also worth noting: the author herself had a hermangioma as a child, and some of the incidents in the book came from her experiences. Now available!Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram Google+

I had a hard time figuring out if the narrator was having difficulty separating fantasy from reality or if I was actually reading fantasy, and it really put me in the mindset of how the narrator experiences the world.

I felt like the references to Indigenous people were exotifying mystical-native stereotypes, and though it is not unusual for a white child to have those stereotypes, it's an author's responsibility to write it in such a way that it's clear they're telling readers “don't exotify and stereotype Native American peoples or their folk tales and religions like this.” Authorial commentary on this subject was absent and the only Native people were a man and woman who spoke vaguely of magical things, who the narrator concluded were a god in disguise and a ghost of a princess from a legend / folk tale. This really disrupted my enjoyment of the book.

The scene where the mom tears the monster book in half was heartbreaking and poignant, and the portrayal of bullying resonated with me as a person who's experienced being punished for fighting back against bullying because the bully embellished their story or lied in order to made it look like they were the real victim.