monstrumologist


 * The Monstrumologist ** By: Rick Yancey - - - - - Brandon Chiger, Stephen Fastow, Eric Kasper, and Patrick Mc.




 * __Monstrumologist__**: **Week One**
 * (Only Eric and Brandon were present this week)

Questions** 1. Describe the old man's appearance. What is his name? The old man was old and ragged looking. His shoes were covered with mud and he was surged with fear. His name was Erasmus Gray. 2. Describe the relationship between Willy and the doctor. Willy acts, for the most part, as the doctor's assistant in conducting his experiments. They show moderately warm feelings toward each other. 3. What does the old man bring the doctor? He brings the doctor a grave dug corpse of a teenage girl with a foreign creature pressed/attached to her body. The 2 corpses where attached to each other. 4. How does Willy feel about the "specimen?" Willy is extremely terrified of the specimen on the table. It makes him want to vomit. 5. How does the doctor get the old man to leave the house? He hands him a wad of cash.


 * Will Henry**: Will Henry is an orphan who has no parents because they died. Will Henry lives with Dr. Warthrop. In some way, we feel bad for Will Henry because he has no parents and because of the fact that he has no choice but to help the doctor handle the anatomy of monsters. That is one gory job. He seems lonely at times because he has no other kids his age to play with. His whole life revolves around helping the doctor with his work. As a character, we like Will Henry and the bravery he possesses in order to do this gruesome jobs.
 * Dr. Warthrop:** Doctor Warthrop is a "monstrumologist" who studies that anatomy of monsters. His main purpose in the world is to conduct experiments and to gain knowledge about the Anthropothagi. He shows no love or compassion toward Will Henry, which children his age need. Will Henry serves as the doctor's assistant when he works in the basement. In one way, the doctor is somewhat odd and strange. As far as us liking him, we really don't LIKE him or DISLIKE him, he's just there.
 * Erasmus Gray:** Erasmus Gray is a grave robber. In the story, he digs up the body of a girl who was killed by the Anthropothagi. He is a ragged looking old man, who seems a little bit frightened. We like him for one reason. When the doctor, Will Henry, and him went to the cemetery to put the body back, he told the doctor that this kind of work should not be exposed to kids his age. He also shows kindness to Will Henry while they were at the cemetery. Little did we know, approximately 5-8 pages later, he would have his brains busted out.


 * So far, these are the characters we know and are familiar with.

During the first meeting, Eric and I were the only people discussing. Eric brought in marshmallows for us to chow down on after a long day of school. I read my questions aloud so that I could maintain a discussion with Eric. We did a good job on staying on topic without talking about what we planned on doing over the weekend! We both were astonished to hear the descriptive detail of the specimen on Dr. Warthrop's lab table. We loved the graphic imagery that this section of reading drilled through our heads. The idea of a human without a head but his eyes are on his shoulders without eyelids, his mouth is a sharks mouth on its stomach, and the ears are above the waste, is very terrifying.
 * Summary:**


 * Week 2**

1. Do you think Captain Varner should be in the sanatorium? Yes, his experience with the anthropaphagi ruined his mind. 2. Have you ever felt as alone as the doctor when he was in school and his father would not write to him? Yes, when Eric flew to Florida as an unaccompanied minor. 3. Do you believe the Captain's story? Why? Yes because we have already seen an antropaphagi in the book, prior to this. 4. Does the doctor appear scared about the 30-35 anthropaphagi in New Jerusalem? No, he is more excited about his discovery. 5. Should Will be afraid of the basement? No because the anthropaphagi and the baby are both dead.
 * Questions**

Monstrumologist uses very advanced language. Advanced in the way that you might need a dictionary close by as you are reading. If we were to rate the reading level of this book, we would rate it as an adult book, for kids no younger than in high school. It was a huge shock to all of us (including you Mr. Morone) that this book was rated "Young Adult." With the gruesome scenery that this book supplies, it is quite clear that it is NOT young adult.

Today we nobody brought in any snacks because Patrick, the person in charge of snacks was absent. After we got over the devastating effect of hunger, Eric began to read of his questions about pgs. 1- 160. We had a long discussion especially about whether or not Captain Varner should be in the sanatorium because Brandon had some good points on the subject. Next we discussed who would edit the page because only one person could edit at a time. The last thing we did was discuss what the characters/monsters looked like. We had about 5 minutes left after that so we figured out how much more in the book we had to read.
 * Summary:**


 * Week 3**

1. How did the monsters get to the U.S? The doctor's father brought them over from the Kingdom of Benin. 2. How did you feel about the graveyard scene? We felt like we were watching a horror movie. It gave us a dark theme as readers. 3. What do you think the townspeople will think about the monsters when they come across them? They are going to freak out, and chaos will spread throughout town. 4. What are the Anthropathagi fed in Benin? They are fed 12 or 13 year old girls. 5. What happened to Erasmus Gray? He got shot in the head by the doctor.
 * Questions:**

The tone of this book is VERY clear. Gory, gruesome, suspenseful, and action packed (despite few boring parts). In brief terms, the tone of this book was clearly NOT serene and relaxing. The monsters attacking vigorously at the "group" and the brain busting scene of Erasmus Gray's brain clearly prove the tone of this book.

We had a great discussion this week overall. Stephen brought in Lays chips. On the last Friday of 2009, it really hit the spot. Patrick asked questions about this week's reading. We had a thorough discussion about the reading. Eric did a great job on keeping our group in order. Our favorite part of the reading was when Captain Varner told his stories. From the food to the discussion, this truly was a discussion meeting we all will remember! So far, this book has been extraordinary. (I can't believe this book was rated "Young Adult.")
 * Summary:**


 * Week 4:**

1. Is the Anthropothogi like all the other fictional monsters behavior wise, or does it act independent of stereotypical monster behavior? 2. How did the Crew of the Feronia die? 3. How desperate is the doctor to eradicate the Anthropothogi? Extremely desperate. He is a dedicated man when it comes to his work. Get in the way, your FINISHED. He wants these "monsters" eradicated before they can breed and multiply. 4. What was Captain Varner's fate in the sanitorium. 5**.** Is this a job for a 12 year old? Clearly not. 12 year olds should be studying vocabulary words and putting them in alphabetical order for school. Will Henry is dissecting the anatomy of monsters, monsters that words cannot describe.
 * Questions:**

The author uses the images of "monsters with jet black eyes lingering in its shoulders and bone breaking jaws, nestled in their stomach." This gives great imagery as to what the monsters look like. Just the thought of it gives me goosebumps! In addition, the scene where Erasmus Gray gets his brain blown up was described vividly. "The memories and knowledge of 60 years, gone to a single bullet." This book also talks about how Will Henry had pieces of brain in his hair, not to mention blood and gore from Erasmus Gray. The author uses this imagery to give the reader a clear idea as to how scary these monsters really are. Without the great use of details from Rick Yancey, we all agreed that this book would not be as good.


 * Summary:** This meeting seemed to be the longest one yet. It started with Brandon's delicious goldfish. After washing them down the fun really began. It took us a while to get to the questions but eventually they were asked and answered. The book is really starting to heat up with 80 pages left. The Monstrumologist is well liked in our group. At the end of the day we started to work on the wikipage. Everybody in the group seems to be anxious to finish this book and get to the end.


 * Week 5

Questions: 1. Did you feel that the ending of the story was disappointing or did you feel that it ended "epically?" We were extremely happy with the way the book ended. In short terms, if we had the option to read a sequel, we would do it without question. 2. What was your favorite part of the book? When Erasmus Gray got his brains busted in the cemetery. 3. What story element best describes __Monstrumologist__? Suspense 4. Which character(s) played the biggest role in this story? Doctor Warthrop and Will Henry because they put their brains together to solve the case of the Anthropothagi. 5. Which part of the book was the least exciting? When the characters flashed back or had a memory from the past. These points in the book were extremely boring. **

Overall, we loved this book, immensely. We would recommend this book to peers because of the fact that it challenges the vocabulary of the reader's mind. By adding this book to the school curriculum, students will obtain a better vocabulary, a fascinating book, and an improved reading level. In our opinion, the key to putting books into the school curriculum is that students will enjoy what they read. This is a very important factor when it comes to reading. Do not let the low reading level rating fool you. Trust us, this book is beyond our reading capabilities! This guarantees that students will be challenged by reading this book. From the suspense to the imagery, this book was very enjoyable and we would definitely recommend this book to peers.


 * Summary:** This was, overall, the most depressing meeting of all. This was the last week of reading! Eric brought in delicious rice krispie treats. Stephen brought in very intriguing questions. They brought up a great discussion. Overall, it was a great meeting to conclude our book. Patrick (Thundercat Wallace) did an extraordinary job keeping us in order. In some cases, our discussion dragged into what our 3-day weekend would bring us. Patrick really laid down the law to keep us on topic. Our group rated this book a 3/5. We all agreed that the beginning was exciting. As the book dragged toward the middle, it got somewhat boring. Despite the boring times, book club round 2 was extremely enjoyable. We really like the fact that WE were able to pick our groups. The main factor that made this book unique was the imagery that Rick Yancey gave the reader. The cemetery gave the reader an eerie feeling inside, not to mention that it was dark with monsters with hungry jaws nestled right into their stomach, with jet black shark eyes in their shoulders, possibly hiding in any corner of the cemetery. It was just a matter of time until they ran for the kill. (I'm getting goosebumps just writing this out). If a reader had no book on their agenda, yes, our group would recommend this book. It is packed with suspense, which was definitely a plus. However, be prepared for lingering stories and flashbacks. Book Group Round 2 went extraordinarily well, in our opinion. We all agreed that we would do it again!