The Creators of A Monster Calls

British writer Siobahn Dowd created the idea of the Monster Calls but she passed away in 2007 from cancer so she passed her ideas in the story. “Siobhan spent twenty years as a human rights campaigner for PEN and Amnesty International. All of Siobahn’s royalties for a Monster Calls benefit the Siobhan Dowd Trust, they bring books and read to disadvantage young people in the United Kingdom.”

Later her Editor asked Patrick Ness to finish what Siobahn started on her ideas for A Monster Calls. At first he refused to finish writing the story because he said “to tell a story, you have to be yourself and if you're writing a story for any other reason, you're risking mediocrity". “Ness never met Siobahn but they shared the same literary editor.” The beautiful black and white illustrations in the book were created by Jim Kay. For the illustrations in A Monster Calls Jim Kay use monoprint, collotype, aquating, etching and engraving including nature printing. Some of the drawings were done in pencil  and some ink then water color. I loved that he did the book in black in white it shows there is a good and bad to everything or nice and evil.