In David Almond’s novel The True Tale of The Monster Billy Dean, Billy Dean is a little boy who has been held in isolation most of his life, but is still trying to make since of the world around him. Billy has been kept inside for so long, that he doesn't know anything about the outside world that he lives in. The most he knows is the tales that his father tells him, which he doesn't understand. He hears voices through the walls of his room and mice are running in and out of the walls. However, after his father leaves the family, Billy Dean is brought out into the world and begins to learn about it, which is named Blinkbonny. Mr. McCaufrey and Missus Malone are waiting for him, so they can teach him about the town. After that Billy becomes the Angel Child that can heal the living and help the troubled world.

This novel is very uniquely written in the way that its a book of short stories by Billy Dean. It’s also written through a sort of slang wording that is consistently throughout the novel. Are you in the mood to read something that is not traditionally writer? If so, this novel will be great for you to read. Here is an example of the sentences in the book and a great passage, ““I wunderd if this wow what Dad meant about monsters & if this wow a sine that I wos becoming 1. And I wunderd if I shud wurry abowt this & try to chaynj it & it went on happening” (Almond 23). I’ve never read a novel that was written this way consistently through out the whole book. I found it interesting to get inside Billy’s world and his dialect.

This book would be great for high school students because they will enjoying reading something that different when referring to structure and the way the sentences are written.