The Sister Surprise
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The Sister Surprise
One night, not long after their adventure at school, the monster and the boy were sitting in the boy’s room. The monster, who was nocturnal (mostly), was very wide awake. The boy—who was not nocturnal (mostly)—was rather sleepy. But he was something else, too.
“You look grumpy,” the monster told the boy.
“I am grumpy,” the boy said.
“Is it because you don’t have fur like I do?”
“No.”
“Is it because you don’t have antlers?”
“No.”
“Is it because—”
The boy knew that the monster would just keep guessing until he knew why the boy was grumpy. That’s the kind of friend he was.
“I’m grumpy because I’m getting another little sister.”
“Ooh,” said the monster. “But you already have one of those!”
“Exactly,” said the boy.
“Where are you getting the new one?”
“From my mom.”
“Why don’t you just tell her no, thank you?”
Hannah Barnaby’s The Sister Surprise, the third book in the “Monster and Boy” series, begins with a prologue.
Hello again. It is I, your friendly narrator. You probably remember me from the first Monster and Boy book and also from the second Monster and Boy book, which were stories that started a bit like this:
Once there was a monster who loved a boy. And a boy who loved a monster.
Then comes a two-page review of the first two books, Monster and Boy and Monster’s First Day in School.
Though this review isn’t needed for The Sister Surprise to stand on its own, the review is a nice touch. The narrator’s warm tone tells readers who haven’t encountered the first two books that he or she or they or them is a friendly sort of person. And the review adds to readers’ interest because it’s nice to know where stories start.
Throughout The Sister Surprise, the language is colourful, descriptive and simple enough to be read by seven-year-olds without being condescending. When more difficult words, like ‘indignantly’, ‘universe’, or ‘anxious’, need to be used, they are.
The main plot is a story that has been told untold times in an untold number of ways—what happens to the family when a new baby arrives? It’s a story every child with younger siblings, or whose mother is expecting a baby, will immediately grasp. And the stereotypical reaction of Boy at the beginning of the tale to the impending addition of another female to his family will resonate with every child who wished for a sibling the same gender as themselves and found out the baby would not be that. The stereotype is cliché because it’s true to life, but Barnaby goes beyond the cliché and pulls readers much further into the story and into higher concepts with a number of interesting techniques.
None of the characters have names, which makes the reader wonder what their names are because naming things is what humans do, and names are often suggestive of personality. Needing the answer to the question of what his name is becomes a main ambition of Monster and drives the story forward.
The narrator’s and main characters’ questions, comments and sidetracks deepen the family narrative or bring other concepts into the light.
A family is like a solar system with a certain number of planets in it, and all the planets can fly around one another without crashing. But then, if a new planet suddenly shows up…
“I think he’s just strange,” said the little sister smiling. “This whole place is strange.”
“Are you…happy about that?” the monster asked her.
The little sister looked up at him. “Strange is more exciting than regular,” she said.
Through the author’s liberal use of humour and succinct dialogue, the main characters’ personalities are shown or developed further. None of them is one-dimensional.
“Wow,” whispered the monster. “That was scary.”
“Yeah,” said the boy.
“Your little sister is brave,” said the monster. “Is that because she’s little?”
“No,” said the boy. “It’s because she’s her. She was born that way.”
“What do you want?” Jeffrick asked.
“Candy,” said the little sister.
“No more sisters,” said the boy.
“We want to come in,” said the monster.
Often the narrator interrupts the story. Sometimes the interruptions are used to explain.
The boy had been teaching the monster about manners.
Sometimes to increase tension.
Here's another thing that’s true: because both of them—the monster and the boy—had their eyes closed, neither one of them noticed when she crawled underneath to join them.
Sometimes another mystery, which is apparently unrelated to the children’s and monster’s quests, is added.
WHAT? HOW DOES JEFFRICK KNOW GRANNY WAFFLETON?
With the interruptions, the nameless narrator becomes a character in the story, but more than that, he or she, or they or them, wrap(s) the whole in a kind of fuzzy cocoon of interest and warmth akin to Monster’s fur coat (which holds a few surprises) and the baby blankets that are wrapped around the newborns the boy and his sister eventually meet.
Along the way, Anoosha Syed’s two-tone, cartoon drawings boost readers along with visuals that show the facts, such as the picture of Boy’s family on page 42, or which may add greatly to young readers’ understanding of the complex concepts introduced by the narrator, such as the family solar system on pages 60-61.
Overall, Hannah Barnaby’s The Sister Surprise is a multi-layered story that is imaginative, often humorous, occasionally perplexing —WHAT? HOW DOES JEFFRICK KNOW GRANNY WAFFLETON?— and clever, an enjoyable read on every level.
A reviewer’s “Afterword” related the book design, not the story: This reader found the light green sentences at the beginning of some chapters and the white sentences on the green pages at the beginning of other chapters very difficult to see. So, I wonder if that will be the case with children just starting to read full books?
Jocelyn M Reekie is a writer, editor and publisher in Campbell River, British Columbia.