SuitabookStitch
Pádraig Kenny
- Reading
- Read alongside your child if they may want reassurance around death or threatening encounters. Pause after the villagers’ reactions and ask what evidence supports their judgement of Stitch, Alice or Henry.
- Themes
- Who is a monster?: Stitch, Alice and Henry are called monstrous at various points, while the story asks readers to consider what it means to be a monster. The narrative appears to complicate the label by contrasting physical difference with trust, bitterness, goodness and harmful intent.
- Trust and compassion: The book addresses trust and compassion; the detail of how it is developed remains unclear. The book leaves its stance open to more than one reading.
- Creator and creation: Stitch and Henry are cobbled-together creations who discover that the Professor has died, after which an arriving relative presents dangerous plans. The situation raises questions about dependence, responsibility and what remains after a creator is gone.
- Worth knowing
- Death, threatening plans, fearful villagers and a character with an injured leg are present. The story also uses ‘monster’ as a socially loaded label; the intensity and detail of peril remain unclear.