Prologue Summary

This fantasy novel is the story of Jacob, a moody teenager who discovers, over the course of a series of increasingly dangerous adventures, that his grandfather's stories of monsters and children with strange powers are actually true. As it flips back and forth between past and present, and as Jacob learns old truths about his grandfather and new truths about himself, the narrative pays thematic attention to the question of what constitutes individual identity, and also explores the differences between appearance and reality.

Narrator Jacob begins his story with a comment on how his life changed as the result of a particular event (see "Quotes", p. 8), and how at least part of that change is the result of his relationship with his Grandpa Portman (Abe). Jacob describes how his grandfather looked after him and told stories about his own childhood at a special...