Monty and the Monster by Rhonda Smiley

Monty and the Monster by Rhonda Smiley
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Middle Grade, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Full Length (232 pages)
Age Recommendation: 12+
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

When seventh grader Monty Hyde moves for the fourth time in two years, it’s the same old story. New neighborhood, new school, new bullies, no friends. With his dad working all the time and his older brother too popular to notice, he’s the lonely outcast yet again. That is until he finds a mysterious replication serum in his basement and decides to make a friend. From scratch.

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What if building a new friend were as easy as performing a science experiment?

Monty was such a likeable guy. He was quirkier than most kids his age, but the hobbies and mannerisms that made him stand out from the crowd were also what made him so interesting. His unique approach to what someone should do for fun in their spare time showed off so many of the things that made him who he was as an individual.

Yes, some of Monty’s quirks lead to him being bullied because of how his classmates misunderstood him and he misunderstood them at times. I thought the scenes that showed him being mistreated by the other students at his school were realistic and well written. While this definitely isn’t true for every case of bullying, Monty did need to learn how to polish up a few of his social skills in this particular situation, and his classmates needed to learn how to be more accepting of people who march to the beat of their own drum. The author struck a nice balance between showing how both of those things can be true simultaneously while still having a lot of compassion for a kid who’s had to adjust to far too many new schools in his short lifetime.

This was one of those cases where a blurb fairly reveals the basic plot of a book while still leaving plenty of surprises for a reader to discover for themselves. I was intrigued by the little I knew when I started reading it, and I quickly realized that I enjoyed this tale twice as much as I originally thought I would. I obviously can’t go into specific details here, but I will say that this felt like something that underpromised an already attention-grabbing storyline only to over-deliver on exactly how much fun it was to read. It’s pretty marvellous when that happens!

The character development was handled beautifully. I especially appreciated seeing all of the ways in which Monty grew and changed as a person as a result of everything that happened to him during the course of this storyline. He matured so nicely while still remaining true to who he’d been all along.

Monty and the Monster is a must-read for anyone who has ever had to deal with bullying or experiments that don’t necessarily go the way they’re expected to.