Refe Tuma

Frances and the Monster

Frances Stenzel is an aspiring scientist, and one day she’ll be a world-famous inventor like her parents … if they’d only let her leave the house.

When Frances is left home yet again with only an infuriatingly clever robot named Hobbes for company, she enters her parents’ off-limits laboratory, determined to claim her freedom and prove her scientific mettle.

Instead, she accidentally awakens her great-grandfather’s secret and most terrible invention—an enormous monster who breaks out of the manor and disappears into the city below.

With her pet chimp, Fritz, and a reluctant Hobbes by her side, Frances sets off to find the monster, facing a persistent constable, angry locals, and an unexpected friendship along the way. But with the trail going cold and the monster nowhere in sight, Frances is running out of time before her future science career, and the town itself, are doomed forever.

Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-0063085763

“A joy to read!" — New York Times bestselling author Margaret Peterson Haddix

“[Frances’] memorable adventure, with strong echoes of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, plays out against a colorful background as she confronts who she is in a truly shocking finale. A fast-paced and remarkably original tale.” — Kirkus Reviews

Available for order:

AMAZON

Refe Tuma is the co-creator of Dinovember and the WHAT THE DINOSAURS DID picture book series, including What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night, named a Best Children’s Book of the Year with Honors by Bank Street College. His debut Middle Grade novel FRANCES AND THE MONSTER will be published by HarperCollins in Summer 2022.

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Tags: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Retelling, STEM