The inspiring story of the girl behind one of the greatest novels --
and monsters -- ever, perfectly timed for the 200th anniversary of the
publication of Frankenstein. For fans for picture book biographies
such as I Dissent or She Persisted.
How does a story begin? Sometimes it begins with a dream, and a dreamer.
Mary is one such dreamer, a little girl who learns to read by tracing
the letters on the tombstone of her famous feminist mother, Mary
Wollstonecraft, and whose only escape from her strict father and
overbearing stepmother is through the stories she reads and imagines.
Unhappy at home, she seeks independence, and at the age of sixteen runs
away with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, another dreamer. Two years later,
they travel to Switzerland where they meet a famous poet, Lord Byron. On
a stormy summer evening, with five young people gathered around a fire,
Byron suggests a contest to see who can create the best ghost story.
Mary has a waking dream about a monster come to life. A year and a half
later, Mary Shelley's terrifying tale, Frankenstein: or, the Modern
Prometheus, is published -- a novel that goes on to become the most
enduring monster story ever and one of the most popular legends of all
time.
A riveting and atmospheric picture book about the young woman who wrote
one of the greatest horror novels ever written and one of the first
works of science fiction, Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein is an
exploration of the process of artistic inspiration that will galvanize
readers and writers of all ages.
