# Help identifying this book?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-this-book/243331
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 3, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-this-book/243331 "2004-05-03T19:59:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-identifying-this-book/243331/1 "2004-05-03T19:59:11Z")

</div>

Well I’ve been searching for this book forever and the problem is I can remember very few of the details. It was a book geared toward, er, young adults, I suppose, and I would have read it about… (gasp!) 20 years ago. I remember being very moved by it, but that’s about all I can remember, except a few minor details:

The protagonist is a young girl, probably about 10 years old. She has an older brother, named Matthew, but she calls him Monse - which is short for Monster. Matt/Monse dies in a freak lawnmower accident - I think he was stung by a bunch of bees that he disturbed while he was mowing, fell off the mower and… ☹ is run over. I can’t even remember the girl’s name. Anyway, it was basically a coming of age kind of story.

I’ve googled like crazy, and come up with nuttin. If anybody knows the book of which I speak, I’d be forever grateful!