LOOP HAD BEEN STUCK at home for a whole week with his boring GloFish because his mother wouldn’t let him go to Conjuring Cats until he finished Frankenstein.

“That’s going to take forever!” he complained. He wanted to punch, rip, and burn the book. It was ruining his entire summer. “Who cares if I got a few Cs? I aced all my standardized tests, didn’t I?”

“You sure did,” his mom said. “That’s why finishing the book should be easy.”

“But I’ve been reading it all week.” She didn’t respond. This was one of her tactics when she wanted him to settle down. Loop huffed for a few moments. Then he said, “Where’s Rubén?”

His mom looked at him suspiciously. “Don’t go thinking he’s going to change my mind. We discussed this. You need to spend less time with magic and more time with books so you can appreciate your education. Besides, he’s helping Grandma, so it’s just you and me right now.”

Loop knew he had lost this battle, so he stomped to his room. He plopped on the bed, put in earbuds, and turned on a sound track of traffic noise. He closed his eyes and imagined living in a giant city with six-lane freeways and skyscrapers, where no one cared about your grades or made you read books. He hoped the honking cars and revving engines would help him forget his frustration, but no luck. When he opened his eyes, the book was still there, waiting.

He sighed, opened it, and started to read again. That’s when something interesting happened. In magic, a transformation is when you change something into something else—like turning a golf ball into a soccer ball. As Loop read, he started to experience a transformation in himself because he was changing from someone who hated the book into someone who liked it, all because he was getting the monster’s point of view and, believe it or not, the monster wasn’t scary. Sure, he looked hideous, but he was exactly like a kid trying to figure out the world. He wanted friends, just like Loop wanted friends. He wanted to learn how to read, just like Loop wanted to learn about magic. He wanted to go out and have fun—just like Loop! But no one gave the monster a chance because of how ugly he was. Every time he showed himself, people screamed and ran. They judged him, and Loop could totally relate because he got judged, too.

Loop decided to draw the monster, but he didn’t want his version to look like everybody else’s. They always drew a large body with a square green head and a zigzag of stitches on the face. But Loop remembered what Mr. Garza said about taking information from different places and creating something new, so he thought about the Frankenstein movies and the descriptions in the book and started sketching. He drew about a dozen versions of the monster but was unhappy with all of them. Then he had an aha moment. The monster was made from different body parts. So he gave the monster one eye that was wide and round and another that was almond shaped. Then he gave him one ear with a giant lobe, and another that was normal size but pierced. He also gave the monster one muscular, hairy arm and another flabby, hairless arm. Finally, he gave him two left hands and two right feet.

“You sure are ugly,” he said to the picture, but he was pleased. It had taken several tries to get the drawing just right, and the extra time was totally worth it.

He thought about reading some more, but after two hours in his room, he was truly going stir-crazy. It was almost three o’clock. He’d been stuck at home all day. He had to get out of there. Then he heard Rubén’s voice. Finally, the guy was home, so Loop gathered up his drawings and took them to the kitchen.