A Monster Calls Recap: Chapters 1-3

Name: ______
Block: ______

Chapter 1: A Monster Calls

It's ____:____ a.m., and 13-year-old Conor O'Malley is awake again. He's just had his usual nightmare, "the one with the ______and the wind and the screaming."
Nobody knows about the nightmare. Conor hasn't told his parents, his grandma, or any of the awful kids at school. He doesn't even tell us.
But it's not the nightmare that woke him up tonight. It's the fact that there's someone outside his bedroom window calling his name.
He tries to ignore it, telling himself it's just the ______, but it keeps calling, so he gets out of bed and goes to the window.
He sees what he always sees: the church tower on the hill behind his house, the ______surrounding the church, and the giant ______tree that stands in the midst of the graves.
He hears his name again and answers, saying, "What?"
A cloud moves in front of the moon, darkening the landscape, and a giant gush of wind whooshes into his room. He hears a loud sound like wood cracking.
When the cloud passes and the moonlight shines again, Conor sees that the ______is now standing in his yard.
But it doesn't remain standing for long. It turns into a gigantic tree ______, with trunks for legs and branches for arms and needle-leaf skin.
The monster grabs the roof of Conor's house, leans into his window, and tells Conor he's come to get him.
But Conor's not ______. Apparently, this monster's totally lame compared to the one in his nightmare. He tells the monster to shout all it wants; he's seen worse.
The monster is shocked that Conor's not afraid, but tells him he will be before the end.
Then it opens up its ______to eat him.

Chapter 2: Breakfast

It's the next morning, and Conor hasn't been eaten. Phew.
He goes downstairs for breakfast and calls for his ______, which he's been doing a lot lately. But she's not out of bed yet.
Conor's not too bothered: after the night he's had, he's happy to make his own breakfast, and quickly whips up some ______, toast, and juice.
As he chows down, he looks out at the graveyard and sees that the yew tree is back where it belongs.
He reflects on the events of the previous night. When he first woke up, he thought it was all a ______. Then he saw that his entire bedroom floor was covered in yew tree ______, so maybe… not.
He tells himself that the leaves, which he swept up and threw in the trash, must have blown in through his open window.
Because he has some spare time before school starts, he decides not to leave the yew leaves in the kitchen trash. He takes them outside, along with the ______.
His mom comes downstairs to find that not only has Conor made himself breakfast, he's taken out the garbage and started a load of ______to boot.
She compliments him on being so good and apologizes for oversleeping. She tries to tell him the new round of ______is making her tired, but he interrupts her before she can say "______." That word's a no-no in this house.
Plus she's good to go for the day because his ______is coming to visit to help take care of her. Conor's not thrilled, though. ______is also bringing his mom some ______, which he really doesn't like.
Conor's all about the denial.
As he heads off for school, he hears his mom saying to herself, "There's that old ______."

Chapter 3: School

Conor's mouth is full of ______. His bully Harry has just tripped him on the way to school, and Harry's cronies ______and ______think it's hilarious.
Harry is, as Conor puts it, "the ______Wonder ______." All the teachers love him.
These two weren't enemies, though, until Conor started having the nightmare with the screaming. Not the one about the tree—the real nightmare, the one we don't have the scoop on yet. Somehow he became Harry's target around the same time. What's that about?
On the first day of school that year, Harry had tripped him, and has been tripping and pushing him ever since.
Harry, Anton, and Sully are laughing to beat the band, but Conor______them. He just wants to make it to school.
Then ______, Conor's ex-best-friend, comes up and yells at them to leave him alone. And when Sully laughs that Conor will have to get "his baldy ______" to kiss his bleeding face, Lily shoves Sully into the bushes.
But then things get dicey. Miss Kwan, their ______(or Head of Year, since we're in jolly old England) sees Lily push Sully, and she yells at Lily, who tries to tattle on the boys.
Miss Kwan asks if Sully's okay, and he says he might need to go ______. She tells him not to milk it and tells Lily to go to the ______.
Lily tells Miss Kwan that the boys were making fun of Conor's______, and Miss Kwan asks Conor if it's true.
Conor says ______, that they were just helping him up after he fell. So then Lily gets dragged to the office, and Conor and the bullies make their way to school—not speaking, of course.
Well that went well.